Father Han Gaozu

Chapter 885

Xia Houzao has not seen Xiao Yan for many years.

At this moment, the two groups are sitting in a small village in Yunnan, which is the closest to the rainforest.Although it is illegal for princes and kings to go abroad privately, the prime minister is not subject to such constraints, because the prime minister has to go to Chang'an to report the situation, and from time to time he has to go around to negotiate some major issues, so there are no restrictions on the itinerary of the prime minister, Xiahou Zao Naturally, you can go to neighboring countries to discuss some major issues. As long as you don't go every day and live directly in other countries, you won't be questioned by the temple.

Everyone sat in a courtyard, with all kinds of food and drinks in front of them.

Xiao Yan stared at his brother intently, the excitement in his heart was indescribable.

"In these years, I wanted to visit you several times. During the period, I went to see Mai and Ah. Yafu came once, and the others have never seen each other. How are they doing?"

Xia Houzao smiled and said: "It's all right. Xuan Moru is now the Secretary of the Ministry of Punishments. He doesn't need to salute when he sees me. He spends all day studying the law, arresting people everywhere, and his reputation is ruined. On the side of Wa Island, I may be there for a long time. I haven't seen him before, but I heard that he is doing well. While everyone was exploring overseas, he built a lot of ports, made a fortune, exchanged talents with Yan and other places, and built a dozen cities. Looks good, I heard people say that he will probably be recalled to the temple this year."

"It is said that he will be appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Oh, it is the pianke from the past. Hasn't he changed his name now?"

"The city is in Beiting country. The crown prince said that he will be the prime minister this year, but I think it will probably not work. The character of the city is not suitable to be the prime minister."

Chai Qi hastily interrupted him, "He is the prime minister in Beiting Kingdom?? What about my father??"

Xia Houzao glanced at him, and replied: "Of course your father is going to resign and return to his hometown. How old is your father, and you can't let him work there? Besides, your father's personality is not the same as yours. It generally smells bad, and the relationship with several surrounding countries is very bad, so of course we have to change people."

Chai Qi didn't know the news, and was a little stunned.

Xia Houzao continued: "Shengzhi doesn't need to say much, this guy is now the commander of the navy, and he spends all day wandering overseas, catching water thieves and so on. I will let him come to see you in the future. Youjian, hahaha, you would never have imagined that this fellow is now the governor of Nanyang County, and he just took office this year."

"The eunuch Lu continues to be his eunuch leader. He is very powerful in Chang'an. He is in charge of the entire palace. He is known as the eunuch."

Xiao Yan couldn't help laughing.

"Also, under Zhang Buyi's command, he almost became Zuo Cheng. However, someone impeached him before, and he seems to have been demoted."

"Ah is still serving as his county magistrate, and Mai has already become the secretary of the Ministry of Industry. I have also become the minister of the state here. After all, it seems that Lu Hezhong has the lowest official position. I am nothing to this gang. Those of the Lu family, I already knew they would not succeed!"

Xiao Yan asked with a smile: "What about Your Majesty? Is Your Majesty okay?"

"He is still the same, unreasonable, thinking about beating and bullying others all day long. He never does business. He almost lives in Shanglinyuan. If we brothers did not help him with all our strength, I am afraid that this big man It will perish at his hands!"

Hearing these words, Chai Qi couldn't sit still, he shouted: "It's treason!"

"Why, have you never been beaten by His Majesty?"

Xia Houzao asked back, Chai Qi's face suddenly became a little hesitant, "It actually makes sense."

"Yeah, I think you are not a bad person. The reason why you are like this must be influenced by that emperor. Come, let's have a drink and don't care about the past!"

Xiao Yan shook his head again and smiled wryly, "Zao, don't talk nonsense."

"What's the matter? I'm thousands of miles away from Chang'an, can't I complain? I can't say what he did by himself?"

Xiao Yan pointed to a person in the distance, "Look, that person is called the Inspector, who specially recorded these conversations, and then wrote a letter to the emperor."

Xia Houzao followed what he was pointing at, and sure enough, he happened to see a person holding a pen, staring at him cautiously, still writing something.

Xia Houzao pursed his lips, "Actually, Your Majesty is an emperor through the ages. No one can compare with Yao and Shun's wealth. It is my blessing, Xiahouzao, to follow such an emperor. Is it too late to say that now?"

Now, even Chai Qi couldn't help laughing.

The three got together and drank some wine, Xia Houzao immediately talked about the thief.

"There are really a lot of thieves in the southwest. I used to think that Xiting Kingdom had the most horse thieves. It wasn't until I came here that I realized that Xiting Kingdom is a kingdom of gods on earth. The people here are so kind. The common people are the real fierce ones, if they don't agree with each other, father and son can kill each other, every case of disobedience in Chang'an can be earth-shattering, it can be seen everywhere here, and there is such a complicated marriage system, I don't know what to say. I can’t tell the difference, I go to rob when I have no food, robbing is a sideline here, and they say that Tang is a country of thieves, it’s far from here, I see people in Tang are all pretty.”

Chai Qi agreed very much, and he complained: "The people of Dian are relatively honest. Most of the thieves who endangered Dian came from you, so I dispatched soldiers early on to block the mountain passes. To stop those who come to Dian Kingdom from your side, I even want to build a city wall along the border to completely block you!"

"I've been blocking it for so many years, but now that you're driving it away, people are running in, and I have a lot of problems here."

Xia Houzao said seriously: "I'm really not chasing you. You have entered the rainforest and engaged in a pursuit battle here. They have been fleeing ahead, and I can't catch up at all. Look, why don't we come here once?" The joint pursuit has completely solved the problem of thieves. There will never be any more thieves in my homeland. I have frightened the local people this time. As long as the last few thieves are cleaned up, It's peaceful here."

But Chai Qi shook his head, "No, this won't work. If I come with you to suppress the bandits, those who don't know will think that our country of Dian can't deal with these bandits and need your help. It's just some bandits. A county under my command Lieutenant can solve it, you don't need to take action!"

Xia Houzao showed a weird smile, "You have to think about it, these people have fought with me all the way, and have fought more than 30 times. Although I defeated them every time, the people left behind are all thieves." The elite of the army, and they were driven to a dead end, your Dian Kingdom hasn’t fought a war for a long time, right?”

"What do you mean?! Could it be that I, the majestic captain of a country, is still afraid of some thieves?!"

Chai Qi jumped up, pulled out his saber suddenly, and said, "If I can't kill all these people within fifteen days, I will follow your surname!"

"Okay! It's a deal!!"

Xiao Yan looked at the two of them, and got up helplessly, "We are all serving His Majesty, so don't say such harsh words again, don't delay the good opportunity to catch the thieves just because of your temper. Zao, you too , if you still want to develop Funan in the future, don’t you need the help of our Dian? My Dian has copper mines and can mint coins. In the south, except for Wu, we are the only ones in our Dian. The development of the country must be getting faster and faster, Funan has a good port, if we can open a road in the rainforest and cooperate with each other, wouldn't it be a win-win situation?"

Xiao Yan made both of them sit down, and said calmly: "In these years, we have paid a lot of money to govern the local area. We obviously have a very good opportunity to raise our development to another level. If it is because of your Isn’t it a pity that the relationship was broken? His Majesty will not forgive you.”

"Qi, I know your ability, but now is not the time to show your bravery. These thieves broke into Dian Kingdom. I don't know how many people they want to murder and destroy. You can't let them continue to do harm just because you want to show your bravery. The two of you We can cooperate and hunt together, and we cannot let these thieves harm the people, let alone let them escape."

Xiao Yan's prestige with Chai Qi is still very high, and Chai Qi admires him very much. Since he opened his mouth, Chai Qi did not continue to insist.

Xia Houzao needless to say, the relationship between Xiao Yan and him was already very close.

The two countries decided to work together to exterminate these thieves.

In Chang'an, bursts of wailing came from the Hall of Houde.

The wailing sound was quite tragic, and the soldiers and servants who didn't know it were a little suspicious. Didn't King Xia already go to the country?Why can he still hear his screams here? ?

Is it because I miss King Xia too much?

Lu Lu and Dou Guangguo stood outside the door, listening to the screams coming from inside, they looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time.

pitiful.

After a long time, the screams inside subsided. Lu Lu walked into the hall first, and Dou Guangguo followed behind him. When the two walked in, they saw two guys lying on the ground, in pain. Humming, these two guys are not Liu Qian and Liu Che, they are obviously much older, with bruised noses and swollen faces, it can be seen that the emperor is merciless at all, the two look very similar, and they are very wronged at the moment Lying on the ground, I dare not raise my head.

Of these two people, one is Zhou Yang and the other is Zhou Sheng.

They are the legitimate sons of Zhou Yafu and Zhou Shengzhi respectively.

Probably because of being away all the year round, the two Lizi have extremely bad personalities and are very cheating, especially Zhou Yang. Compared with Chai Qi, this cheating ability is not inferior.

At the beginning, they fought because of a dispute over who was stronger, the navy army or the chariot army, and they fought in armor. Liu Chang directly threw them to Xia Guo to serve in corvee. Today, they ended their corvée and returned to the As soon as Chang'an returned to Chang'an, he was called by Liu Chang to the Hall of Houde, where he was beaten again.

The two of them had no idea why they were being beaten this time.

Liu Chang looked at them with disdain, "Your father is fighting for me, so I will discipline you on their behalf!"

"Look at you, how do you look like the sons of two great generals?"

"Two people go up together, neither is my opponent!"

Zhou Sheng was full of helplessness, "Your Majesty, our two fathers are not your opponents together!"

"Dare to talk back?"

Zhou Sheng immediately didn't dare to say more, his expression was still aggrieved.

Liu Changyu said earnestly: "Today I just want to tell you a truth. Whether the truth is right or not depends on who is speaking the truth. Whether the army of chariots and cavalry is strong or the army of buildings and boats is strong, it depends on who is speaking. I say whoever is strong will be strong, because I am the strongest, and no one dares to refute what I say. Look at yourself, talk about learning, you don’t have much knowledge, talk about martial arts, and you don’t have much martial arts. Is it also worthy of a debate? Have you ever seen a debate in Taixue?!"

"From today onwards, you two will stay with me in the palace as Langzhong. I will test your knowledge and martial arts every day! Either improve your own skills, or you will be beaten to death by me here!!"

Hearing this, both of them almost burst into tears.

When they were serving corvee, they thought about returning to Chang'an all day long, thinking about it, but they never thought that they would be treated like this after returning to Chang'an. If they knew it would be like this, they would not go back to Chang'an at all. It would be good to just stay in Xia Guo. Thinking of this, they felt even more sad.

Liu Chang didn't care about this, he said solemnly: "All these years, you have had no worries about food and clothing, and lived so well, it is only because of your father! Now that you have enjoyed these benefits, you must fulfill your obligations, I This person has always thought that he can eat as much meat as he has! If he wants to continue eating meat and drinking, then work hard for me! Hone your martial arts, study more, and become a talent soon!"

"Now, let me go home! Come to work tomorrow!!"

"only"

The two spoke weakly, got up with difficulty, supported each other, and limped out of Houde Hall.

Lu Lu smiled wryly, "Why is Your Majesty treating them so harshly?"

"What is this? You should go and see the man named Wei Wenjun in the Prince's Mansion. He was treated harshly. Compared to him, what are these two people?"

Of course Lu Lu knew about Wei Wenjun. This guy was also well-known in Chang'an. He was the prince's confidant and was in charge of all the affairs of the prince's mansion.

The Prince's Mansion used to be just the name of the Prince's Mansion, but now, the Prince's Mansion has vaguely become a power institution like the Tingwei Mansion and Shangfang Mansion. The Prince and the followers under his command constitute this institution, and the specific person in charge is Wei Wenjun, he is in charge of all activities in the Prince's Mansion, the distribution of materials, and even the transfer of personnel.

Liu Chang ordered his servants to bring him some food, but Dou Guangguo had already started to report the situation.

"Your Majesty, the crown prince has teamed up with the officials of the Ministry of Rites to rectify those obscene sacrifices, mainly through newspapers and the propaganda of local officials. The crown prince wrote articles to expose these things. He wrote a total of three articles. I read them personally. The first two articles It is mainly written for those scholars, and it is a general direction to inform the uselessness of sacrifices. The last article is more popular, and it is written for those common people. It mainly exposes the face of those alchemists, how they cheated Money, how to collude with officials, how to do evil, etc."

"I also brought a lot of evidence, some cases from various places, to warn the people."

"In addition, the crown prince also asked the king of the Northland to ask the writers under the King of the Northland to write poems to criticize these things. I think the situation will definitely change a lot after the officials publicize it for a while. .”

"The Ministry of Criminal Justice has also arrested a lot of alchemists recently."

Liu Chang waved his hand, "You don't need to tell me about the affairs of the Ministry of Punishment. I know these things very well. You can just talk about the Ministry of Rites."

Dou Guangguo continued: "The Ministry of Rites has also promulgated the corresponding sacrificial etiquette laws, and decided to issue laws together with the Ministry of Punishments to stipulate all aspects of all sacrifices, including which sacrifices are allowed and which are not, and the specific process of the sacrifices. made detailed arrangements”

Liu Chang laughed.

"Yes, this is what the Ministry of Rites should do."

"This old man Lu Jia is still amazing."

In the near future, the entire temple has been busy dealing with these sacrificial matters. Liu Chang is the clearest about the affairs of the Ministry of Punishment and Xiuyi. They have arrested many alchemists in various places, including some officials who colluded with alchemists , and even those officials who unintentionally became accomplices, there were more than 600 people who were disposed of last month alone. Alchemists, these people cheat money everywhere and confuse the place, they really deserve to die!

When Liu Zhang told Liu Chang about these things, in fact, Liu Chang wanted to bury Confucianism and bury these alchemists.

However, Liu Chang felt that it was inappropriate to do so, it was too cruel, and there was nothing new about it. How could one emperor through the ages follow the example of the first emperor?So Liu Chang decided to innovate and use artillery to blow up these people to death.

The times are advancing, and this punishment will naturally also keep pace with the times.

However, his proposal was not recognized by the officials of the Ministry of Criminal Justice.

Xuan Moru resolutely opposed it. This criminal law was even crueler than King Zhou's criminal law. How could Ming Jun use such a cruel criminal law?
Because of the opposition of these officials, it is a pity that Liu Chang cannot use the criminal law of artillery.

But arresting people is not enough. Now the Ministry of Rites has specially formulated these regulations. This is the only way to cure the root cause.

Lu Lu said: "Your Majesty, Duke Lu is very wise, but these days, he fainted twice in the mansion in order to handle important affairs, but there is nothing serious about it. The main reason is that he is overworked and too tired. You see , Are you looking for someone to replace him?"

Dou Guangguo also had the same idea. He said: "Grand Lu is already very old, and he is usually fine. If such an urgent matter is needed, his health will not be able to bear it. He should be sent back to his hometown."

Liu Chang frowned and let out a long sigh.

"That's all it takes."

"Lu, send someone to the Xiting Kingdom and ask Zhidu to come back and serve as Minister of Rites."

"Um???"

(End of this chapter)