Emperor Renzong of the Great Song Dynasty

Heroine of the world?

Liu E's hands holding the handkerchief trembled slightly, and looked at Kou Yaoniang in surprise.

What does Kou Yaoniang mean?

Did she want to ask this question herself, or did the emperor ask her to ask it?

... No, it cannot be the emperor.The emperor has now driven her to a dead end, no matter whether Liu E has ever thought of becoming emperor, it can only be a wishful thinking now.

The emperor was a practical man, and he didn't care about wishful thinking that was doomed to fail.

Liu E sternly said: "What does the empress mean by this? Does the empress also have the ambition to follow Lu Wu and usurp the Zhao family?"

The corner of Kou Yaoniang's mouth curved slightly in a mocking arc: "The mother's word is really wonderful."

Liu E and her stared at each other for a long time, suddenly couldn't hold back, and laughed out loud.

Kou Yaoniang also laughed.

After a long while, Liu E finally said, "Queen, you were born at the wrong time."

She twirled her fingers: "Government, your husband, he is not a fool. I advise you to be a good empress with peace of mind. In the future, you will be famous in history with him, and you will be famous forever. If there is anything else Thoughts, I'm afraid I can't even save my life, let alone other things."

Kou Yaoniang said: "The queen mother is too worried. My mother only wants to be the queen of the official family and give birth to an heir for the official family. As for other thoughts, she has no thoughts at all."

She is a person who cultivates outside the world, and has no desire for power, wealth and honor in the world.

Liu E sneered: "Why, the queen doesn't care about power, but she is worried about the affairs of the heroine?"

She stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the tall sky outside the window.

"Queen, the world has changed. It is no longer the Han and Tang Dynasties, and there will be no Empress Gao and Wu Zetian anymore."

Kou Yaoniang asked her: "Before Emperor Zetian died, why didn't he pass on the throne to Princess Taiping?"

Liu E said: "Perhaps it is because it is too difficult for a woman to be the emperor. When the sky is called the emperor, the right time, place and people are all right, and she herself is a rare woman who can only be found in a lifetime. This has created the great cause of the heroine. It is the turn of Princess Taiping when……"

She turned around: "Perhaps the emperor also knows that no matter how much she loves Princess Taiping, Princess Taiping is not her after all. The great achievements she can make are impossible for Princess Taiping. In this way, Instead of putting the princess in a position where she is unable to sit firmly, it is better to let nature take its course and just call her a Princess Taiping."

Kou Yaoniang nodded: "What the queen mother said makes sense."

Liu E smiled: "What do the queen's words today mean? Please ask the queen to clarify my doubts."

Kou Yaoniang said: "Does the empress dowager know that as soon as I entered the palace, I became pregnant with the emperor's heir and gave birth to a pair of twins?"

Liu E said: "I know. The empress has contributed a lot to the Zhao family. At that time, I thought..."

At that time, she thought that the blood of the Eight Sage Kings had the fate of twins.Otherwise, why the emperor himself was one of the twins, and the queen gave birth to a pair of twins for him?

It was only later that I realized that the emperor was not the real son of the Baxian King, but was adopted by him.

She sighed: "Forget it."

Kou Yaoniang said: "I gave birth to a pair of children. The first one was a boy, and the second one was a girl. At that time, the official family was waiting for me to give birth. After seeing this pair of children, the official family's reaction was very strange. .”

Liu E asked, "What's so strange?"

Kou Yaoniang said: "The official looked at the prince first, although he didn't say anything, but his face was not worried. Then he looked at the princess, but he was overjoyed, and he hugged the princess on the spot and left. Since then, he has been raising the princess himself. Throughout the ages, How many emperors personally raised the princess? Except for Emperor Taizong Wen who raised Princess Jinyang, none. However, Emperor Wen also raised Princess Jinyang himself after the death of Empress Changsun, and he never raised Princess Jinyang when the empress was still alive. Keep the princess by your side when the time comes."

Raising princes and princesses has always been a concubine's job. The emperor does not take part in raising children. He can be considered a qualified dad when he meets occasionally to check his homework. The entire feudal royal family education is a large-scale widowed parenting scene.

Occasionally there are a few special cases where the emperor ends up with a baby. That is because the empress is gone. The emperor and the empress have a deep relationship and cannot accept other women to raise the empress's children.

But now the queen is still alive, but the emperor took the princess to his side.

This is a little weird.

If the emperor personally raises a prince, then the prince is sure to be the future emperor's heir, and there is no need to canonize him as a prince. Both the government and the opposition have recognized him as the future emperor.

Even if the emperor canonize other sons as princes, after the emperor dies in the future, this prince will still have the confidence to compete with his prince brothers for the throne.

After all, there are often princes, but princes raised by the emperor himself are rare.The emperor has raised them himself. Can't you tell who is the emperor's favorite and favorite among so many princes?

But now the emperor is raising himself, not the prince, but the princess.

A princess who is destined to have no intersection with the throne.

Moreover, the emperor was still among a pair of twin brothers and sisters, and he only chose the princess without even looking at the prince.

The profound meaning of the emperor's move is very intriguing.

Liu E said: "Does the queen think that the emperor is..."

She seemed to think that this idea was too absurd, and it was difficult to say it, so she was silent for a long time before continuing: "The emperor wants the princess... to succeed?"

Putting the two words princess and succession together, how come...

"That's why I asked the Queen Mother," Kou Yaoniang said, "Is it still possible for a female to rule the world?"

After the emperor took the princess away, she raised the prince alone.At first, she thought that this prince was her destined child to be an emperor.

After all, the emperor has never set foot in her palace since she gave birth, and it seems that he will never visit her again in his life.No matter how capable she is, she can't make a child by herself.This prince should be her only son in this life. If she is destined to give birth to an emperor, then he will be the only one.

Until she had nothing to do, in order to practice spells, she gave the child another divination.

The hexagrams showed that although this child had the destiny of being a nobleman, he did not have the destiny of an emperor, and he could only be a prince throughout his life.

Kou Yaoniang was dumbfounded.

Before getting married, she clearly calculated that she would give birth to an emperor in the future.

Why now that I have given birth to a son, but this son is no longer ordered by the emperor?

Is something wrong?

She tried again and found that the result was still the same.

This kid can't be an emperor.

Kou Yaoniang thought for a long time, and thought it might be because she didn't have enough babies.

She only has one son until now, but she is still young.This son can't be the emperor, she just needs another one.

So she sent someone to send a message to the emperor, the words were tactful, to the effect that she invited the emperor to come and sleep with him for the night.

According to the report from the person who delivered the letter, the emperor turned pale with fright, and insisted that he was ill, terminally ill, unable to get out of bed, unable to accompany the queen, and asked the queen to understand.

Kou Yaoniang was so angry that she almost laughed, and asked the messenger what the emperor was doing at that time.

The sender said that the princess had just finished drinking the milk and was placed on the ground covered with a blanket by the emperor to walk around to digest.

The princess was just able to stand firm at this time, and she could barely walk a few steps while holding on to the legs of the table.The emperor was afraid that she would hit her head, so he ordered someone to wrap all the corners of Yuchen Palace with felt.

After Kou Yaoniang heard the news about the princess, her heart moved.

She had an extremely incredible idea.

The emperor valued the princess so much, could it be because...

With trembling hands, she divined the princess' fate again.

This time the hexagram is very clear, the fate of the emperor cannot be wrong.

Liu E said: "The succession of a princess has never happened in ancient and modern times. It may be even more difficult for a female to rule the world. But..."

She said: "Can the empress be sure that the emperor really intends for the princess to succeed?"

Kou Yaoniang nodded: "I can be sure."

If she was able to attribute the emperor's respect for the princess to her father's love before taking out the princess' fate, then after she figured out that the princess was destined to be an emperor in this life, she would no longer be able to deceive herself and others.

The emperor must have also seen the vision of the princess, that's why he treated the princess so differently.

As for how the emperor saw the vision of the princess, Kou Yaoniang chose not to ask.

Just as the emperor didn't ask her where she came from and why she married him, she wouldn't ask the emperor's secret either.

Anyway, they are all living together, so what are you doing after all, it’s not about being in love with each other. You and I wish we could live and die together.

Liu E said: "If the emperor is willing, then it will be much easier. But... the empress should not give too much hope."

Kou Yaoniang said: "I know this is difficult, so I came to the Queen Mother."

Liu E said: "I'm already a woman in the deep palace, what's the use of looking for me?"

Kou Yaoniang said: "Your Majesty, why should you underestimate yourself? Your Majesty has been acting as the regent for more than ten years, how can this be done by a deep palace woman? The real deep palace woman should be the concubine Li who escaped from the cold palace just now .”

Liu E suddenly raised her head: "How do you know that she escaped from the cold palace?"

From the beginning to the end, neither she nor Chen Lin explained Concubine Li's origin to Kou Yaoniang.

Kou Yaoniang said: "Just because I don't care who she is, doesn't mean I don't know who she is."

Even if no one told her the truth, she could figure it out.

The corner of Liu E's mouth twitched: "The empress is good at it."

Kou Yaoniang said: "Queen Mother, let's open the skylight and speak plainly. The officials have a vengeance against you for killing your mother—although the mother is actually still alive, the things you have done are worthy of such a big vendetta—but But the life of the empress is still saved, this is to use the empress. I don't care about the previous dynasty, I don't know what the officials want the empress to do, but it must be something he himself is unwilling to do. In this case, I don't know if the empress can do it. Do something for me too."

Liu E said, "Just tell me what it is."

Kou Yaoniang said: "Please ask your mother to seal the princess. After the princess is a little older, I will ask your mother to write a letter and choose a virtuous and virtuous scholar as the princess' teacher."

If you want to have a place in the battle for the throne, you must first have an identity, and second, you must have knowledge and culture.

There has never been a precedent for the Song Dynasty to confer a princess. If the princess Zhao Xu gets the canonization, it will be tantamount to telling the world that I am different from other princesses in the past.

Like the princes, I have been canonized by the emperor.

Even if the canonization cannot be used as a basis for equal competition with the prince for the throne, it can also be used to commend Zhao Xu for being different.

The princess who is lost in the crowd is not even qualified to be cannon fodder for her succession.Only by taking the lead and putting on a posture different from others in advance can we make a good layout in the future.

The same goes for reading.Although the princesses of the Song court were all literate and good at writing poems and lyrics, none of them seriously worshiped Confucianism as their teachers, attended classes every day, and learned some skills and principles of governing the country like the princes.

After all, the princess does not need to govern the country. It is enough to read some poems and songs to cultivate her sentiments, and to be able to put on an arty look.Why bother the Confucians to give lectures to the princess?

But if you have never received a higher education recognized by the world, how can you rule a court composed of scholar-officials?

Therefore, Princess Zhao Xu had to learn from Confucianism and receive education with her twin brother.

Liu E said with a smile: "The emperor can do these things as well as the empress. Why do you have to ask me to write a letter?"

If the emperor wanted the princess to succeed him, he would naturally find a way to confer titles and apprenticeship to the princess.

Kou Yaoniang said: "The Empress Dowager is the head of the palace, and the officials respect the Empress Dowager. If the Empress Dowager wishes, and the officials obey, it can still be regarded as a word of filial piety, and it will not attract any gossip."

Canonizing the princess and asking the princess to study are extremely strange actions in the context of Confucianism.However, the Song Dynasty paid great attention to law-abiding and quiet, and was very repulsed by all things that did not follow the rules.

But no matter how law-abiding and quiet, it can't be more than a word of filial piety.The word filial piety is greater than the sky. In the underlying logic of Confucianism, filial piety to parents is the premise of all thoughts.In order to honor their parents, they lie on the ice and beg for carp, or bury their relatives and children.For the sake of filial piety, all unreasonable actions are acceptable.

To put it bluntly, Kou Yaoniang still wanted to invite Liu E to play as a shield.

Liu E said: "The Queen's words are very reasonable. But, why should I help you?"

Kou Yaoniang asked her: "The government invited the Queen Mother to contribute to Di Qing's appointment as a privy envoy. What kind of remuneration did the Queen Mother promise?"

Liu E said: "The emperor allowed me to order my name after death."

Kou Yaoniang said with a smile: "So that's the case. Unfortunately, I am not the emperor, and the reputation of the Empress Dowager is beyond my control."

She changed the topic: "I heard that the empress was born as an orphan."

Liu E glanced at her: "I was born in a poor family, so I am not as noble as the daughter of the Duke."

Kou Yaoniang said: "Your Majesty is talented, intelligent, and has a sense of arrogance that is not willing to be inferior to others. Why didn't you study hard at the beginning, gain fame, and strive for a title of Marquis and Prime Minister, but you wanted to join the palace and be a concubine? ?”

Liu E sneered: "You're crazy, I'm a woman, how can I get an imperial examination? How can I worship a minister? If I don't serve as a concubine, how can I be as rich as I am today?"

Kou Yaoniang said: "But is the empress willing?"

Liu E was silent.

Kou Yaoniang said: "If your lady is a man, a gentleman will always be poor and will not change his ambition. Although he was lonely early and his family was poor, he will definitely follow the example of Che Yin's story, study hard for books, gain fame, and be honored as a marquis. Just like It's like my father. It's not like now, I've worked hard for more than ten years for the Great Song Dynasty, and when it's time to come, I have to be scolded as a rooster in the morning."

Liu E said: "It's like how your father's fate is going to be better."

The two of them are the emperor's defeated generals, so don't laugh at them.

Kou Yaoniang said: "At least after my father passed away, when I asked someone to write the epitaph, I could write my life's achievements on it in a dignified way, so that people in the future would know the reputation of Kou Zhun, the Duke of Lai. What happened after my mother died? What achievements can be passed down? The empress said, the official gave you a posthumous name, what is the name? Does it mean that the empress is chaste and virtuous, or does it mean that the empress protects me and works hard?"

Liu E said, "What do you want to do?"

Kou Yaoniang said: "I'm not the emperor, so I can't give my mother anything as a reward. But I just want to ask my mother, when the grandson becomes the emperor, can the achievements of the grandmother be passed down, or when the granddaughter becomes the emperor, can the grandmother How will the achievements be passed down?"

"This is not for the princess, but for the empress herself. As the empress said, the government intends to appoint the princess as the heir, so he will definitely do the little tricks of canonization and apprenticeship before. Why don't you be a favor for the empress?" , let the officials do things more smoothly? Not only the officials will be grateful, but when the little princess grows up, she will remember who helped her in the first place. Please think twice."

Liu E laughed and said, "The empress is really sharp-tongued. You are not like your mother, you are like your father. That's how Kou Zhun persuaded the first emperor to conquer himself."

She recalled the past with leisurely fascination: "Your father made light of the situation on the front line of Yingzhou, but also emphasized the disadvantages of not personally conscripting. The first emperor's blood boiled, and he was directly persuaded by him to agree to the personal conquest. It was only when I was resting in the middle of the night that I got over it. I was terribly afraid. He hugged me and said, "My lady, if my husband dies outside, what will you do? I told him, I am not afraid of him dying outside, but he If you dare to run away, don't come back to see me for the rest of your life."

Kou Yaoniang said: "So, the empress agreed?"

Liu E said: "Tell me, the title of princess is better for Chu or Qin?"

Kou Yaoniang said: "It depends on what the officials think. But if I ask this palace to say it, Qin is better."

Liu E laughed and said, "As soon as you talk about the official family, the official family will come."

She pointed out the window, and sure enough, she saw the emperor's guard of honor coming to Fengchen Palace.

Not long after, Zhao Yiyi entered the room, saw Liu E and Kou Yaoniang were there, and asked directly, "Where is Concubine Li?"

Liu E pointed to the side room: "Over there, there are medical officers making diagnosis and treatment."

Zhao Yiyi breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that the medical officer is here."

He didn't wait for the two to greet him, and found a place to sit down by himself.

"Let's talk about it, what's the matter? How can a good person faint after half a day after being sent here?"

Liu E said leisurely: "The weather is hot, and Li Niangniang is greedy for cold, so she drank a few more bowls of ebony soup, and took a couple of countermeasures. If she couldn't accept the cold and heat, she fainted."

Zhao Yiyi asked Liu En to pour him a cup of black plum soup that Liu E and Kou Yaoniang were drinking, took a sip, and raised his eyebrows: "It's quite delicious."

Liu E is getting older and has a slightly stronger taste. This soup has specially added ebony plums and honey to make a cold drink with a strong and sweet taste of ebony plums.Zhao Yiyi was already addicted to sweets, but now he felt that the ebony soup was delicious, no wonder Li Niangniang was greedy.

"What did the doctor say?"

Kou Yaoniang said: "The medical officer said that Li Niangniang is fine. I can't understand what it is that makes her angry. In short, she recited it in one breath. After a while, she will wake up naturally."

Zhao Yiyi nodded: "It's fine."

As he said that, he was about to get up: "Since Li Niangniang is fine, I will go back. Since she is weak, you should take care of my mother more in the future, and don't make her faint again. It's a hot day, and the medical officer will come It's not easy, don't let the sky toss you around."

He still has a bunch of memorials in Yuchen Palace to read, so he has to go back first.

Liu E said: "The emperor stays."

Zhao Yiyi asked doubtfully, "Mother's queen?"

Liu E said: "Is the princess's second birthday coming soon?"

Zhao Yiyi and Kou Yaoniang looked at each other and nodded: "That's right."

Liu E said: "When I was one year old, there was a flood in the country, and the child was still young, so it was not suitable to handle it. Now that the flood is over, the child is standing still—I heard that the emperor raised the princess himself and raised the princess very well— —So I thought, should I think about canonization for the children?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "There is no rush to establish a reserve."

He understood what Liu E meant. Isn't the so-called canonization the establishment of a reserve.He has a son now, but this son has not yet been registered as crown prince.

Not only Liu E, but also the ministers of the court and the central government are very anxious, expressing and hinting every day, seeing that the flowers of a tree bloom very well, they have to fill in a poem, saying that the officials look at the tree as if it is such a human being - no, the tree blooms beautifully So brilliant, the fall is about to bear fruit.The law of nature is the replacement of old and new.Do you want to canonize a crown prince, just like this tree blossoms and bears fruit?

When encountering this kind of memorabilia, Zhao Yiyi usually replied with a nonsense, telling him to concentrate on state affairs and not to care about romantic affairs all day long.

Liu E said: "This palace is not trying to persuade the emperor to establish a heir. The establishment of a heir is just a private matter of the emperor, and I will not say much. It's just that the prince is getting older, so he should have a title to follow. Whether it is a prince or something, the emperor always wants to I have an idea. How about taking advantage of this birthday and giving him a title."

Zhao Yiyi said, "Let's discuss it later."

Liu E said: "That's right. The prince and princess are twins, so it's not good to favor one over the other. If the prince has a title, it's not good for the princess. It just so happens that the princess is also given a title. From my palace's point of view, the title of Princess Qin is very good."

Zhao Yiyi looked her from head to toe, nodded and said: "The queen mother has a heart, so let's follow the queen mother's wishes."

Liu E nodded, and was about to say something when she suddenly saw Chen Lin coming out of the side room in a hurry: "Officials, your majesty is awake."

Zhao Yiyi hesitated: "Then, shall I go and have a look?"

Chen Lin said: "The officials please quickly."

Zhao Yiyi followed Chen Lin into the inner room, and saw Concubine Li leaning on the pillow, seeing Zhao Yiyi coming in, struggling to grab his hand.

"Emperor! Kill that treacherous concubine Liu E for your mother!"