Southeast of the mainland, Quguo, Qudian.
The predecessor of the so-called "Qu State" was the "Shen State".
The ruler of the fallen State of Shen was licentious and violent, favored treacherous officials, persecuted loyal and honest people, and bullied the common people... For a time, the people were full of resentment. Zhai Huan, the ruler of the State of Qu, lay dormant for several years, killed the tyrant, and established a new country named "Qu". Although his reign was short, he worked hard to govern the country, promoted civil and military affairs, and revive the people's livelihood, defended against neighboring enemies, and brought vitality to the decadent country.
Although Zhai Huan came to power by killing his master and his position was not legitimate, the common people didn't care so much. They only knew that after the new king came to power, the family's life had improved visibly, and the public security was no longer as panic-stricken as before. This was enough!
The king also led his troops to destroy the neighboring country that had repeatedly harassed him!
When the news came back, the whole country cheered.
However, the situation in the southeast of the continent is not something that a new country like Qu State can decide. Faced with the powerful Qu State, several nearby countries developed a sense of crisis and united to resist the pressure. The king Zhai Huan had to reorganize his troops and conquer again.
This fight lasted for more than half a year.
The common people of Qu State were unaware of the war situation on the front line, but judging from the fact that Qu State had been holding out for more than half a year, it should not be destroyed.
The common people in the country should do what they are supposed to do.
More than a month later, the two sides ceased fighting and agreed to non-aggression against each other.
King Zhai Huan led his troops back in triumph.
However, even a three-year-old child knows that this false peace is only temporary. Before long, a new country will be established or an old country will be destroyed. Countries will change, regimes will rise and fall, and the only thing that remains unchanged is the land under their feet.
Da da da da—
A low-key team sped past on the official road.
The leader was a young man wearing a loose crimson round-necked robe. This young man had delicate and heroic features, a nose like a hanging gall bladder, and lips as if painted with rouge. The most outstanding feature of his face was his pair of affectionate peach blossom eyes that seemed to be smiling but not smiling, and a smile was born at the corners of his lips.
However, the young man pursed his lips tightly at this time.
For some reason, those peach blossom eyes turned slightly red.
"drive-"
The young man controlled the reins with one hand.
Rushed all the way into the capital of Qu State.
When entering the city, the young man raised the tiger talisman in his free hand. The guards recognized him at a glance and opened the door to let him pass. However, there were some new recruits among the guards who were dissatisfied with the young man's behavior.
Di Gu said: "Master, who is this person?"
Although the young man was dressed richly, he was still far from being a truly wealthy person. Moreover, this was the capital city, and the king kept a close watch on the children of noble families. Anyone who came had to dismount and pass through the city. I had never seen anyone riding a horse into the city like this.
The veteran patted the recruit on the back of the head.
He lowered his voice and warned, "You have no vision, who do you think he is? He is the most trusted brother of the king. As soon as the king ascended the throne, he conferred him a title. Even brothers with the same father don't have this treatment. If you don't open your eyes when you meet such an important person, you may die without knowing how!"
The recruit was frightened by the serious warning in the veteran's words.
If Chen Tang was here, she would recognize the young man just now. Wasn't he her friend who had ridden pigs together before—Zhai Le, Zhai Xiaofang? At this moment, Zhai Le had completely shed his youthful immaturity, with a mature face and a firm look in his eyes.
The reason why he rushed back to the capital was because of an imperial edict.
Xiaofang, come back soon—brother, please stay.
When Zhai Le saw these six words, his hands and feet almost turned cold.
Regardless, he led 20 or 30 guards back from the military training ground. For a moment, countless thoughts that made him panic and frightened emerged in his mind. However, he did not expect that as soon as he entered the city, he saw the maid beside his wife looking around at the intersection.
The maid saw Zhai Le and said, "Parent!"
Zhai Le quickly tightened the reins to stop the horse.
He said in a deep voice: "Why are you here?"
The maid said, "Madam asked me to wait for you here!"
"Go back and tell my wife that I have something else to do. I will be back home from the palace in less than an hour."
The maid said nervously, "Parent, no!"
Zhai Le frowned and asked, "Why?"
Unexpectedly, the maid hesitated to speak.
Zhai Le looked up at the sun in the sky, estimated the time in his mind, and said to the maid, "Let's go back home first."
He felt that the letter his brother gave him was a little strange.
Although Zhai Le returned in a high profile, he did not go to the palace to see the king first, but went straight home. However, he did not expect that he would see his relatives who made him worried in his own home. He looked at the man who was teasing a fat girl in his arms in amazement.
In just a few years, the man's hair had turned completely gray.
Only the face remains as young as before, without any trace of aging.
"Brother, why are you here?" Zhai Le strode into the main hall, and then asked in confusion, "That letter..."
Zhai Huan sat on a mat, letting the chubby baby girl sit on his lap. With his other hand, he shook a jade-handled rattle, dong dong dong, firmly attracting the little girl's attention. She opened her mouth slightly, raised her chubby right hand and stuffed it into her bare mouth, with crystal clear saliva dripping out. Zhai Huan took the trouble to wipe the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief, smiling gently.
This baby girl is Zhai Le’s daughter who was born at the end of last year.
She is strong and looks blessed.
Zhai Huan liked his niece very much, and whenever he saw her, he would hug her and tease her. When he heard Zhai Le's voice, he raised his head and put down the rattle: "A Le, come and hug your fat daughter... She's so heavy after only five months..."
Zhai Le's daughter can recognize people at a very young age.
Only recognize people with good-looking faces.
Seeing Zhai Le reaching out to her, she smiled and opened her mouth, revealing her bare pink gums. She leaned into Zhai Le's arms and unceremoniously smeared her saliva on the fabric of his shoulders. Zhai Le shook his head and sighed, "The second girl is indeed a bit heavier."
He sat down below and mentioned the question again.
"Why did you suddenly send such a secret letter, brother?"
As he spoke, Zhai Le's face darkened.
"Could it be that the letter is a fake?"
Unexpectedly, Zhai Huan smiled and said, "The letter is of course true, but it is not as urgent as you think."
Zhai Le breathed a sigh of relief: "It was a false alarm! I thought it was a relapse of my brother's old injury. I was so scared."
Zhai Huan said: "The old injury has indeed recurred."
Zhai Le: “…”
"I asked you to come back just in case. If it weren't for your sister-in-law secretly going to the palace to ask for an audience, I'm afraid the truth would still be kept from you."
For a moment, Zhai Le's mind was in a mess.
"Who dares to hide this from my brother?"
Zhai Huan sneered and said, "Power is indeed a thing that can corrupt people's hearts. Ah Le, you know that since your sister-in-law passed away, I have abused the way of a scholar, causing my health to deteriorate... I can't even remember how much life I have wasted over the years. A while ago, I caught a cold and was sick for several days, and then someone... Hehe, hid this news from you and me."
The daughter in Zhai Le's arms secretly grabbed his sleeves, and her little fingers pinched the flesh on the back of his hand. The pain was no more than a mosquito bite, so he naturally didn't feel it. His whole mind was blown away by Zhai Huan's words. His peach blossom eyes were full of confusion.
“Who is it?”
Why did he hide the news that his brother was ill from him
Zhai Huan smiled bitterly: "Looking at the whole court, who else dares to do this? Of course, it's your good cousin and my good brothers. Since your sister-in-law left, the queen's throne has been vacant, and there are no concubines in the inner court... Ah Le, don't you understand? My brother has no children, and he swore that there will be no two. Once something happens to me... I can only choose to establish a brother, or adopt a nephew."
Zhai Huan is not an only child. He has half brothers, biological brothers, and several half sisters, but he is not close to them. Compared with these biological brothers, Zhai Le is more like his full brother from the same mother. Zhai Huan also finds it strange and can only attribute it to fate.
Everyone in the court had already tacitly accepted that Zhai Huan would have a short life.
In other words, Zhai Huan has few candidates to choose from.
These people tacitly agreed to regard Zhai Le as their biggest enemy.
Zhai Le was speechless after hearing this, then he said with a smile: "Cousins, are they... doubting that my brother will make me the heir? Even if you use your toes to think about it, you know that this is impossible. Madam has damaged her body in order to give birth to Erya. Even the medical expert said that she will have difficulty giving birth in the future. Even if she can give birth, she will have to take good care of herself for five or six years..."
Zhai Le, he only has two fat daughters.
After the fall of the State of Shen, he married Zhao Sanniang to help his brother stabilize the situation of the Xin Dynasty. Although Zhai Le did not have much affection for his wife before marriage, he got to know her better after marriage and his feelings for her became stronger.
With Zhai Huan as an example, Zhai Le also wanted to keep one person. When he clearly could not take a concubine and had only two daughters, he was obviously not a threat to his cousins. Why were they so wary of him? Obviously, they used to get along very well.
The brothers of the same generation in the Zhai family help each other and unite against external foes.
Why has so much changed in just a few years
Unexpectedly, Zhai Huan's words made Zhai Le completely dumbfounded: "It's not doubt, I really like you."
Zhai Le, whose hands were covered with the girl's saliva, said: "..."
His head was buzzing and his brain almost stopped working.
Zhai Huan said firmly: "I choose you for my brother!"
Zhai Le said awkwardly: "But, but this is not appropriate..."
Zhai Huan said: "You will do a good job of cleaning up the mess for me. You just need to take that position and protect this piece of land. As for them... they are only interested in power and profit, so they are not worthy!"
Zhai Le frowned, his peach blossom eyes filled with hesitation.
He doesn't like being the one at the helm. He has always positioned himself as his brother's right-hand man, helping him conquer the world and protecting what he values. His brother is the pillar of stability in his heart. When his brother is around, he doesn't have to think.
Zhai Le still declined politely: "My brother is in his prime. If you are not satisfied with my cousins, you can adopt a good seedling from them and train it well. There should be no wars in the next few years. After he is trained well, I will assist him like I assisted my brother!"
Zhai Huan sighed and touched his eldest niece's prickly short hair.
When the child was born, his hair was thick and not like a newborn baby's. After shaving off his hair for 100 days, he has only grown a short patch of hair today. He looks like a heroic little boy. He said with regret, "It would be great if he was a boy..."
If he were a man, there would be no objection to directly appointing a crown prince.
Zhai Le poked his daughter's soft cheek and said, "If he were a boy, he might be able to cultivate and protect Madam and Daya..."
Women and children who have no ability to protect themselves are still too dangerous. Zhai Le likes to go to the battlefield, but military commanders who like to go to the battlefield don't live long. He doesn't know if he can live until his daughter grows up.
Then, he was slapped by his brother: "You are a father for the second time, and you still don't understand that you can't move your child's cheeks? Erya drools more than Daya, it must be your fault."
Zhai Le pursed his lips in grievance and touched the back of his hand.
Seeing the brother looking at his fat daughter, he mistakenly thought that the other party wanted to hug the child again, so he shamelessly offered his daughter to him.
But Zhai Huan had no intention of taking it.
He just said, "Ah Le, you really don't plan to take a concubine?"
Zhai Le whispered, "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. Besides, when I married my wife, I used her family's influence to promise her a couple. How can I break my promise for a woman now?"
Zhai Huan said: "In this case, there is nothing we can do."
Zhai Le thought that he had completely given up the idea of establishing himself as the successor.
"It is fate. I am really not cut out for that."
Zhai Huan fiddled with his niece's hand and said suddenly, "The eldest girl has no talent, but the second girl's talent is surprisingly good. Her meridians are ethereal, and she is a good seedling for cultivation..."
Zhai Le lowered his eyebrows and said: "No matter how good the talent is, but..."
Looking at his daughter's pure eyes, he couldn't say some hurtful words, even though she still didn't understand anything.
"Earlier, I told Erya about his fortune."
Zhai Le smiled and asked, "What does the hexagram say?"
Zhai Huan raised his head and looked at his brother, and said word by word, gently and firmly: "A tiger father will have a dog daughter. She can inherit your legacy."
Zhai Le was dumbfounded when he heard this: "Inherit my legacy?"
Zhai Huan's words frightened him: "If a scholar with a literary mind gets the national seal, any level of literary mind can be promoted to the first-class upper-class, although this level is useless. A brave warrior can also obtain the way of princes if he gets the national seal... What about ordinary people? What about women with roots? I have read countless records of previous dynasties, and no one has ever tried it, but this question should have an answer..."
The two brothers looked at the bewildered baby girl.
At this time, the eunuch beside Zhai Huan whispered to the two brothers outside that it was getting late and Zhai Huan should return to the inner court.
Zhai Le looked at him and said calmly, "There are some of their spies in the inner court, but we didn't remove them because we didn't want to alert them. If we can handle it without bloodshed, I don't want to spill blood in the royal court again. This time I saw you, I asked my sister-in-law for help and ran away secretly."
Zhai Le was anxious: "Brother!"
Zhai Huan waved his hand: "As long as they are not seriously ill, they dare not make any big moves. After all, I will really kill them."
Even if he didn't want to go this far.
He told Zhai Le to stay in the capital for a while and not go anywhere. After giving him a few simple instructions, he disguised himself again and returned quietly.
Zhai Le was holding his daughter in a daze.
The panic and anxiety that I had barely suppressed resurfaced in my heart.
At some point, the lady came to his side, put a coat on him, and said softly, "Uncle vomited blood earlier."
Zhai Le shuddered suddenly: "Vomiting blood?"
Madam Zhao said, "I vaguely saw a basin of blood."
Considering the relationship between her husband and the child's uncle, there are some things she cannot say. She is afraid that the king... will not survive this month.
Late at night on the third day of Zhai Le's stay at home, he was summoned to the palace. He looked at the palace, which looked like a giant beast with its mouth opened wide, and his heart dropped to the freezing point. There was a voice in his heart that resisted, but his body, led by his brother's confidant, stepped into the palace gate.