Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Just when Lu Ci spent nearly a month working hard to finish the internal and external chores before the end of the year, and waited for his family and friends to have a relaxing New Year, the sky did not follow his wishes.

Seeing that the excitement of the Winter Solstice had just passed, and the sound of firecrackers on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day was approaching, Lu Ci, who had finished shopping for New Year's goods and was lying in his courtyard while taking Di Qing's homework exam, received an unexpected confidential letter. letter.

Five hundred miles in a hurry, and it's from the capital again...

Even if he hasn't seen the shining prince's seal, Lu Ci can easily guess who the urgent sender is.

He frowned slightly, feeling something was wrong.

Then he got up and walked to the study, while telling Di Qing: "Keep silent, I have something to do in Beijing, I need to go to the study. If I haven't come back after you finish silent, you can change the text and continue silent. "

Di Qing nodded honestly.

Given that he used to behave maturely and steadily, Lu Ci was not worried that he would run around like Liu Qi once he lost his bridle.After briefly explaining this sentence, he hurried back to the study, ordered his servants to guard both sides of the door, and immediately closed the door tightly by himself.

But he said that since returning to his hometown, he had never lost contact with the little prince who had a teacher-student relationship, but had been communicating occasionally.

For Zhao Zhen, who has never stepped out of the palace gate since he can remember, he can see the strange way of fireworks outside the palace. Apart from the cold and boring words in the book, he only treats him sincerely and never forgets the truth. Master Lu, who is not admonishing and admonishing him because he is young and ignorant, is gone.

The pictures of people's livelihood depicted in Lu Ci's essays are all lifelike, and every time Zhao Zhen is fascinated by reading it, he yearns for it.

After replying to the letter, they will cherish the letter and collect it personally.

After more than a month, a fair pile has accumulated.

However, for ordinary correspondence, there is no need to expedite the use of expedited mail, let alone keep it secret.

After Lu Ci lightly cut off the sealing wax, he took out the thin letter paper.

As soon as I unfolded it, I saw two scrawled characters on the head of the letter: Return soon

The bad premonition was actually fulfilled.

Lu Ci knew very well that Zhao Zhen had never been aimless, but calm and introverted beyond his years. If he could reach such an eagerness, he might really be in big trouble.

Concentrating slightly, he began to read carefully by the bright light of the candle...

Although Lu Ci's promotion was extremely fast, he was only a third-rank official in the end. His sudden departure from Beijing only caused a little splash in the turbulent court.

Apart from His Royal Highness, there are only a group of close friends headed by Liu Qizhu who will miss him sincerely.

Even Kou Zhun and the others, who admire him, think of this cunning boy only when they have rare leisure time.

And the open and secret struggles in the court will not die down because of Lu Ci's temporary absence from the meeting, on the contrary, they will intensify.

It has been nearly half a year since Zhao Zhen supervised the country.

Under the careful guidance of Kou Zhun and Li Di, he was already quite talented, and he was willing to work hard. He gradually became more proficient in some routine tasks that he frequently touched, and he also gained a clearer understanding of the situation in the court. .

Even so, Zhao Zhen, whose heart is like a mirror, just chose to observe silently and stand still.

Not to mention that all these courtiers are treacherous and cunning. Although they are talented, they have big plans, and they should mainly check and balance...

Just talking about his identity, he has to ask for instructions when he thinks about making a big move, and he doesn't have the ability to be completely autonomous.

The more outstanding the prince's performance and the more praise he received, the more delicate Zhao Heng, an official who lived leisurely in the palace, felt in his heart.

—He is still alive and well.

Probably in order to prevent the courtiers from forgetting that he is the official with real power in his hands, coupled with the pillow wind blowing constantly from Liu Shengren, Zhao Heng's heart of "pure heart and few desires" and "leisurely cloud and wild crane" went back to " The mortal world' depends a bit.

The courtiers soon discovered to their astonishment that the official family who had only dozed off in court for many years, first handed over all the big and small government affairs to the prime minister, and then let the prince or even the sage handle all of them, unexpectedly had the power to govern. With mediocre determination, he began to appear frequently in the morning court, and actively gave instructions on government affairs.

For Zhao Heng's unreasonable and orderly behavior, the one who felt the most headache was naturally Zhao Zhen who had been interfered so much that his hands were restrained.

...Especially his father, perhaps because he has prayed to God and worshiped Buddha for a long time, he often does not help at all.

And because of Zhao Heng's style of fishing for three days and drying the net for two days, going to court was all on a whim, which not only disrupted Zhao Zhen's rhythm of doing things, but also made the courtiers inevitably feel confused.

Kou Zhun was the most anxious about this, and the corners of his mouth were bubbling.

It was hard for them to get used to the swift and resolute actions under the prince's leadership, but as a result, the officials messed up, and the lazy atmosphere showed signs of resurgence.

To make matters worse, when Zhao Zhen was in the most difficult time, he finally regained his favor, and Liu Shengren, who once again blended oil with the official family and was like glue, also noticed some of his very secretive little tricks in private.

For Zhao Zhen's real life experience, Liu Shengren has always been strictly guarded, keeping the inside and outside of the palace tightly covered.

And because she is the most favored by the officials, and she is also favored by the prince, the position of queen mother can be said to be safe and secure, and the few courtiers who know the truth will not go to the prince to expose the matter.

The tacit understanding on both sides made Zhao Zhen, who was faintly aware of the clues and eager to know the truth, had to start with Liu Shengren's deep-rooted harem to investigate.

Even though he was careful enough, he still leaked some rumors, which made Liu Shengren a little suspicious.

Once this skeptical thought was born, it was out of control.

After all, he didn't crawl out of his own belly, people's hearts are separated, and his biological mother is still alive...

The most important thing is that there is only such a single seedling left under His Majesty's knees.

Doesn't that mean that if Zhao Zhen has a mind and threatens him with his own body, if he kills him and wants to recognize his biological mother, the court will not stop him because of emotion and reason?

Thinking of this, Liu Shengren shuddered.

If Zhao Zhen really became suspicious, then once she took the act of sending people away or even silencing her, it would be tantamount to scaring the snake away.

But if you allow him to follow the vines to investigate, as Zhao Zhen is familiar with the power he holds, sooner or later the truth will come to light.

She had no choice but to draw water from a bamboo basket in vain, wasting all her efforts to raise a son for that maidservant?

Although Liu Shengren was not quite sure that Zhao Zhen had noticed something, but after more than ten days of restless sleep and food, he still came up with this trick out of the mind of preventing trouble before it happened.

A few days ago, on the grounds that Zhao Heng's eldest son, Tuo Meng, had died young, she proposed to raise Zhao Yunchu, the half brother of the official family, who was the son of the eighth king Zhao Yuanyan, who was once caught on fire and brought disaster to the palace, in the palace.

Her thoughts were now clearly revealed: it was obvious that she wanted to threaten the prince with this. Although he was the only blood of the official family, he was not irreplaceable.

For some reason, this absurd proposal actually got Zhao Heng's willing approval.

Hearing that Zhao Yunchu was brought into the palace, brought up by Saint Liu, and with the approval of the officials...

In Zhao Zhen's mind, he was shocked by unbelievable emotions on the spot and went blank.

The first assistant, Kou Zhunhe, and the second assistant, Li Di, have always been the steadfast prince's faction, so of course they strongly opposed it at this time.

Although the other courtiers knew that this matter was extremely inappropriate, but the officials insisted on going their own way, they not only did not support it, but they did not want to suffer from it.

Kou Zhun didn't have so many scruples, seeing the powerful threat that Zhao Yunchu, who was going to be raised in the palace, would pose to Zhao Zhen in the future, he became even more furious, and almost pointed at Zhao Heng's nose and cursed.

If Zhao Heng hadn't acted absurdly and listened to the words of a power-greedy woman obsessively, how could he have allowed her to do things that threatened his own flesh and blood!

This is good, Zhao Heng, who was already a little sensitive and suspicious, immediately caught his disrespect in this outburst, and wanted to dismiss him.

If it wasn't for Zhao Zhen's pleading and Li Di's guarantor, Kou Zhun might be kicked out of Beijing to become a magistrate.

Even so, he was demoted as the last assistant among the three assistants, and Li Di was promoted to the first assistant. However, what made it difficult for Kou Zhun to calm down was that the officials who were still angry clearly wanted to dissuade him, and deliberately made Ding Wei In one fell swoop, I made a second assistant...

The incident happened suddenly, and Zhao Zhen, who managed to save Kou Zhun with great difficulty, was physically and mentally exhausted. Facing the court where his father intervened from time to time, disturbing the muddy water, becoming panic-stricken and talking a lot, he quickly lost control.

After much deliberation, he could only send such an incoherent request letter to Lu Ci, whom he trusted the most in his heart.

One is that the situation is urgent, the other is that he is at a loss, and the third is that he doesn't know if there are any eyeliners of his father and saint around... Zhao Zhen didn't dare to write more in the letter, he just tried to highlight the main points as much as possible, and sent someone to send it urgently gone.

Compared with Zhao Zhen's usual neat and rigid handwriting influenced by his rigorous temperament, the words in this letter are scribbled and messy. Based on this alone, Lu Ci can clearly outline Zhao Zhen's pain of being at a loss in the face of drastic changes. up.

Lu Ci read the letter five or six times, and after confirming that there was nothing missing, he threw the letter into the brazier.

He quietly watched the letter paper being licked and rolled by the flames, then turned from snow white to black, and then turned into ashes, then slowly closed his eyes, concentrating and meditating.

Pity.

If he had known earlier that the little prince had doubts about his life experience by chance, he would have stopped the other party's investigation in the palace earlier.

Now that he was threatening the snake, he pushed Empress Liu, who could have been delayed, to the opposite of the fledgling prince, and became completely passive.

Although Empress Liu's guarded attitude and the precautionary measures taken to bring Zhao Yunchu into the palace are equivalent to confirming Zhao Zhen's suspicion.

But it is conceivable that Zhao Zhen, who is soft-hearted and kind, once learned that Liu Shengren, who educated him with filial piety, was not his biological mother. Yes, if you still don't want your biological mother to approach you for half a step, you will definitely feel the world turned upside down and the pain will be unbearable.

Lu Ci sighed.

What's more troublesome is that the officials seem to have been affected by the pillow wind. Behind the unimaginable connivance, there is no doubt that there is a strong sense of wariness against the prince who is 'too' outstanding.

After all, Zhao Heng is only temporarily 'delegating power', not giving up power.

The more ambitious and outstanding the prince is, the more he appears to be 'hasty'.

The first thing that the officials will think of is probably not whether the decision made by the prince will benefit the people of the world, but——

If things go on for a long time, will the people of the world regard him as the master, or Zhao Zhen as the master?

The author has something to say: Notes:

Partly adapted from historical facts.

In history, it happened after Zhenzong died and Empress Liu came to power.

The original text is "After Empress Dowager Liu took charge of the government, she was suspicious and suspicious, but still worried about the little emperor, always afraid that he would betray her.For this reason, she kept an extra hand, using the reason of Zhenzong's early death of the eldest son Tuomeng, to raise Zhenzong's half-brother Yunchu in the palace. If Renzong didn't like it, she could replace him at any time.This indeed posed a potential threat to Renzong, who had not yet been in power.After Zhao Yunchu became an adult, Lu Yijian deeply felt that the situation was not good, and was worried that something might happen. After thinking about it, he decided to come forward to solve it.Under his patient and firm persuasion, the queen mother had no choice but to give up her original plan and order Zhao Yunchu to leave the palace. '("Born in the Song Dynasty: The Story of Shilin Generals in the Northern Song Dynasty" part of Lu Yijian)

Zhao Yunchu is the son of the Eight Sage Kings in Bao Qingtian's TV series.