Emperor Renzong of the Great Song Dynasty

On the 21st of the first lunar month, another snow fell in Bianliang City.

Snow flakes fell from the sky one after another, and Zhao Yiyin was awakened by the light through the window lattice at three o'clock, and thought it was already noon for a moment.

Liu En put on a thick coat for him: "It's snowing again."

Zhao Yiyi nodded: "Snow is good, auspicious snow heralds a good year, next year's harvest will be better."

It's just that there is too much snow, and when the spring melts, it will cause peach blossom floods.The river embankments in various places were overwhelmed by last year's floods, and I am afraid that they will not be able to prevent the floods by then.

"How much can Jiang Ping's cement factory produce every day?"

Liu Endao: "The dykes and dams outside our city are almost done. Without this need, Boss Jiang's several factories are running continuously, and they can produce 100 million catties of cement every day."

Zhao Yiyi sighed: "He has worked hard, but there are not enough. Tell him to build another kiln, or recruit more workers, and burn more cement, and distribute them to various places, so that they can learn from the capital city." Relief with work, and take advantage of the low water in winter to do the work quickly. There is not only one place in Bianliang that needs to strengthen the embankment. The states and counties that were hit by the disaster last year are at risk in spring. It is necessary to clear the water in these places before the snow melts. The embankment has been repaired once. Otherwise, there will be another flood next year, and the taxes and taxes everywhere will not come up, and you and I will have to drink the northwest wind."

Liu Endao: "Yes, let someone send a message to him."

Zhao Yiyi stopped him: "Not busy, what time is it? He manages several factories, and he is busy enough on weekdays. I'm afraid he just fell asleep now. It won't be too late to call someone to find him in the afternoon."

Liu En said: "Yes."

Zhao Yiyi asked him to open the window, looked at the silver-clad plain outside the window from afar, and said with a smile: "I have been holding back all night, and now that the air is good, I will open the window for a while longer to ventilate."

Yuchen Palace is small and small, so the small room has to be ventilated frequently so as not to be stuffy.

Liu Endao: "The windows are open for a long time, and it gets cold easily."

Zhao Yiyi's eyes hurt a little from the light from the snow, he looked away, and said with a smile, "Who said I'm going to stay in this room?"

"Wake up and wake up, anyway, I can't fall asleep again, why don't I find someone to chat with?"

Liu En asked: "Who can I talk to?"

Zhao Yiyi picked up Xueqiu who was leaning against the window and looking out: "Come on, let's go and see how the queen mother is recovering from her illness."

Since Liu E fell ill, she has been recuperating in Fengchen Palace and never stepped out of her room.The patient naturally had to go to bed early and wake up late. When Zhao Yiyi finished washing and eating his breakfast, and arrived at Fengchen Palace in a chariot, Liu E had just woken up and hadn't changed his clothes yet.

Chen Lin, the director of Fengchen Palace, said respectfully to Zhao Yiyi: "The empress is still changing clothes, please wait a moment, Your Majesty."

Zhao Yiyi smiled and said, "I'm not too busy to come and talk to my mother about the relationship between mother and son."

So he held the snowball and waited in the main hall.

Xueqiu was seldom carried out by him, and when he suddenly came to a new environment, he seemed a little uneasy. He grabbed Zhao Yiyi's collar, meowed, and kept shrinking into his arms.

Zhao Yiyi stroked Xueqiu's hairy back and asked Chen Lin, "Can the Queen Mother hear it when it calls like that?"

Chen Lin said: "The official family is benevolent and filial. The Empress Dowager is in the bedroom and cannot hear the sound here."

Pity.

Zhao Yiyi thought regretfully, and gently scratched Xueqiu's chin: "Don't be afraid, I will take you out to play often in the future, and you won't be afraid if you come out a few more times. How many times have you told me not to bite me? It's not good for others to see." explain."

Xueqiu gradually relaxed under his comfort. At this time, Liu E's personal maid came to announce: "Official family, my empress invites you to meet in the side hall."

Zhao Yiyi stood up holding the snowball: "Let's go."

The maid looked at Xueqiu, hesitated to speak, and silently led the way.

The empress is most afraid of cats. As the son of a man, the official family should not be ignorant, but they still come to see the empress with a white cat in their arms...

Sigh, forget it, the royal family has no mother and child, only monarchs and ministers, she is a court lady, how can she think about these things...

The side hall arrived soon, Zhao Yiyi stepped in and saw Liu E leaning on the couch.

Since that day, it was the first time he saw Liu E.

She seemed to be really sick, her complexion was sallow, her lips were pale, and there were a few strands of silver in her hair.

She is completely different from the empress dowager who was so glamorous in the past.

Seeing Zhao Yiyi coming in, Liu E didn't get up, but just nodded: "The emperor is here."

Zhao Yiyi sat in front of her and put down the snowball: "Is your mother better?"

Liu E glanced at Xueqiu rather apprehensively, and said with a trace of sarcasm: "Thanks to the blessing of the emperor and empress, it's much better."

When Zhao Yiyi married Kou Yaoniang, it was for the honor of the Queen Mother.

Zhao Yiyi smiled and said: "Ms. Kou is a good wife, gentle and quiet, and knows the general situation. She is also the youngest daughter of Duke Lai and Mrs. Song. She also has old relatives with my royal family. It can be regarded as the right family."

He was referring to the fact that the eldest sister of the Song family had married Emperor Tai Zu as the queen.

Liu E smiled and said, "It's good that the emperor is satisfied. When the emperor grows up, I don't need to make up my mind about anything."

Zhao Yiyi said: "The Kou family also gave birth to a son and a daughter for me, so I can be regarded as having a queen."

He looked at Liu E with a smile on his face: "It doesn't matter if the queen's birth is high or low, as long as she can spread branches and leaves for my royal family. I have been married to Mrs. Kou for more than a year, and I have sons and daughters. I am very content."

The corner of Liu E's mouth twitched: "The emperor is blessed."

After all, she was the queen who was neither noble nor able to contribute to the royal family - she was born as an orphan, married once, gave birth to a son with difficulty, and died young.As a queen, she really failed.

Zhao Yiyi called the snowball back and held it in his arms—this little guy ran to Liu E's feet and circled just now, and Zhao Yiyi was afraid that Liu E would kick it out—and said to Liu E: "Of course, I'm here this time." The Queen Mother is not here to show off to the Queen Mother that I have both sons and daughters."

Liu E looked at him silently.

So you're here to show off your power?

Zhao Yiyi said: "I have something important to discuss with my mother."

Liu E said: "Now that I am old, what important things can I discuss with others?"

Zhao Yiyi said, "Of course it's a family matter."

Liu E said: "Why, the emperor wants to accept a concubine, and ask me to give you the palm of your hand?"

Zhao Yiyi smiled and said: "Of course not. Now that there are frequent floods and droughts, I have cut the court expenses by more than half, and even the queen wears clothes that have been washed three times. How can I have the money to accept the concubine?"

Liu E said, "What is that for?"

Zhao Yiyi suppressed his smile: "That Zhao Jue from Yingtianfu, does Auntie know him?"

Liu E's complexion also sank: "What did he do again?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "It seems that the queen mother knows my uncle very well, so I won't go around in circles."

He whispered: "Yingtian Mansion was hit by a flood, and the imperial court allocated enough money and food to go there, but they failed to provide disaster relief, causing tens of thousands of refugees to flee to the capital. I suspect that Zhao Jue embezzled the money and food for the disaster relief. rebellion."

Liu E looked at Zhao Yiyi, and suddenly sneered, "He is really crazy."

She relaxed her body and leaned on the couch: "It's just such an arrogant, ambitious and talented thing, thinking of rebelling?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "It's absolutely true."

Liu E tilted her head to look at him: "How does His Majesty plan to deal with him?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "The prince's rebellion is not a trivial matter. Once it becomes a big one, it may give people an opportunity to take advantage of it - Xixia is using troops, and the floods have just hit various places, and people's hearts are floating. I am afraid that Zhao Jue will raise his arms and call out. It would be bad if there was an unstoppable chaos. I have sent my censor, Bao Zheng, to Yingtian Mansion to investigate the case, and once it is confirmed that Zhao Jue has indeed embezzled the disaster relief funds, he will be escorted back to Beijing immediately."

Liu E smiled: "The King of Xiangyang is His Majesty's uncle, and it was the late Emperor's intention to send him to live in Yingtian Mansion. There must be an explanation for sending him back to Beijing for no reason. Does Your Majesty want to tell the world that the King of Xiangyang intends to rebel?" ?”

Zhao Yiyi shook his head: "Of course not, so I came to find my mother."

"The queen mother is the eldest sister-in-law of the King of Xiangyang, and the elder sister-in-law is like the mother. The queen mother summoned Zhao Jue to Beijing, so it shouldn't cause criticism, right?"

Liu E nodded: "Indeed not."

Zhao Jue is 20 years younger than Liu E. It is not an exaggeration to say that a sister-in-law is like a mother.

Zhao Yiyi said: "Then there will be a mother-in-law."

Liu E laughed and said, "But Ben Gong is still ill, how can we call him back to Beijing?"

The implication is that if I want Bengong to help you with this favor, I have to let my "disease" get better first.

Zhao Yiyi looked into her eyes and pinched the ear tips of Xueqiu in his arms: "The queen mother is ill, just in time to call the king of Xiangyang back to Beijing to attend to the illness."

Liu E just smiled and said nothing.

Zhao Yiyi suddenly called softly: "Mother's queen."

Liu E said: "I am here."

Zhao Yiyi shook his head: "The queen mother is getting old, and her memory is a little bit bad."

Liu E said: "I never forget things."

Zhao Yiyi said: "That's good. Some things, it's better to remember clearly."

He waved to the palace eunuchs standing in the hall: "Go down, I will have a word with the Queen Mother."

The palace people left in response, and Chen Lin also stepped back, Zhao Yiyi said: "Chen Eunuch stay."

Chen Lin's heart skipped a beat.

He looked up at the emperor, wondering and uncertain.

He is not a confidant of the emperor or the empress dowager, the emperor and the empress dowager have secret talks, why should he be kept?

Chen Lin said: "The servant obeys the order."

He has been harboring a secret for almost 16 years.This secret was deeply buried in his belly, and gradually merged with his flesh and blood.

The current emperor is...

He looked at the emperor who looked exactly like the late emperor, as if he could hear the sound of blood rushing in his body.

Can't hear, can't see, can't speak.

This secret is to be brought into the coffin.

Liu E also straightened up.

The emperor acted abnormally, which made her a little uneasy.

Emperor, Chen Lin...

Her eyes moved over the two.

Why is it?

Why should Chen Lin stay?

At this time, only Zhao Yiyi, Liu E, Chen Lin, and Liu En were left in the hall.

There is also a meowing white cat Snowball.

Liu E said, "Can't it be released?"

Zhao Yiyi smiled: "What are you doing letting it out?"

It was brought here to scare you, how could it be let go.

Liu E asked, "What exactly does the emperor want to tell me?"

Zhao Yiyi pondered for a long time, and said: "Guo Huai, the servant of the queen mother, is dead."

Liu E nodded: "It's expected."

Zhao Yiyi glanced at her: "I knew my mother would not pity the life of an eunuch. But Guo Huai himself pays special attention to his own life and death."

Liu E said: "Ants can steal their lives, let alone a person."

Guo Huai has been her confidant for many years and knows all her secrets.

Zhao Yiyi knew that Liu E would never be as calm as she showed.

He continued: "I ordered people to throw Guo Huai into the sky prison, but within one night, he began to worry about his own life. I asked Liu En to interrogate him for a while, and he revealed a secret that had been buried for many years. I wanted to use this secret in exchange for my own life. Unfortunately, after I knew this secret, I couldn't keep his life. So he died."

This is a lie.Guo Huai was a loyal servant, and he never revealed any of Liu E's secrets until his death.

Liu E glanced at Liu En: "You have climbed a high branch."

I still remember that back then, this eunuch was still a pawn she placed beside Zhao Yiyi.

The vicissitudes of life have changed, time has changed, and people are really not to be judged by appearances.

Liu Endao: "Thanks to your mother for making it happen."

Zhao Yiyi said: "Your Majesty, don't you want to know what kind of secret this is?"

Liu E said slowly: "Your Majesty is willing to speak, so he will. If you don't want to speak, it's useless for me to want to know."

Zhao Yiyi said: "I am willing to tell the queen mother this secret."

"Then Guo Huai said that the first emperor once had a concubine, surnamed Li, who lived in Yuchen Palace. Before the empress gave birth to the prince, the concubine Li had already given birth to a son. The empress was afraid that the concubine Li would take the throne, so she used a skinned concubine The civet cat replaced Li Concubine's son, and ordered the palace servant Kou Zhu to abandon the baby under the Jinshui Bridge."

Liu E said, "It's nonsense."

Her tone was steady, as if no one had revealed the biggest secret of her life.

Zhao Yiyi smiled: "Speaking of this Concubine Li, I also have a relationship with me."

"When I first ascended the throne, I entered the Leng Palace by mistake and met this Empress Li. After returning to the palace, I pleaded with the queen mother for this Empress Li. The strange thing is that on that night, the Leng Palace caught fire. , then Li Niangniang was also burned to death in the cold palace."

He asked Liu E: "Don't the queen mother think this is a bit too coincidental?"

Liu E nodded: "It's a coincidence."

Zhao Yiyi said: "What's even more coincidental is that the palace official Kou Zhu also died that night."

Liu E was silent.

Zhao Yiyi said: "Your Majesty, do you know what the most coincidental thing is?"

Liu E shook her head: "I don't know."

Zhao Yiyi turned to Chen Lin: "Eunuch Chen, please clear up the queen mother's doubts."

At this time, Chen Lin had already knelt down on the ground, tears stained her face: "The sky has eyes! The sky has eyes! Li Niangniang is the spirit of heaven, she can rest in peace!"

He raised his head sharply and glared at Liu E: "The queen! Heaven is clear, and the retribution is not good! I have been looking forward to it for 16 years, and finally the day when God will open his eyes!"

Liu E's expression finally relaxed a little: "What?"

What did Chen Lin know?

Chen Lin had nothing to do with what happened back then.

From Concubine Li giving birth to a son, to Guo Huai and midwife Youshi replacing the little crown prince, to Kou Zhu exchanging...

Liu E blurted out: "Kou Zhu!"

Chen Lin nodded with tears in her eyes: "That's right, it's Kou Zhu. When you asked Kou Zhu to abandon the little prince under the Jinshui Bridge, you didn't expect that Kou Zhu was pure in nature and couldn't bear to kill. She met me on the road, so she sent me The little prince was handed over to me, and I was asked to take the little prince out of the palace to avoid disaster."

He laughed: "Do you know where I sent the little prince?"

The little prince back then is not dead?

Liu E's eyes were blank.

The little prince is not dead...

Chen Lin sent the little prince out of the palace...

She turned to look at Zhao Yiyi and found that he was actually smiling at her.

wrong……

If the little prince from back then had lived to this day, he would be the only heir of the late emperor.The emperor is just the adopted son of the late emperor, if the late emperor's biological heir survived, his throne would be threatened, it is impossible for him to be as indifferent as he is now.

unless……

A terrifying conjecture took shape in Liu E's mind.

With trembling hands, she pointed to Zhao Yiyi: "It's you, it's you!"

Zhao Yiyi nodded: "It's me."

Liu E took a deep breath, her chest heaving violently: "It's you, it's you! Hahaha, good! Good!"

She stared at Zhao Yiyi with resentment: "I actually put you on the throne!"

"I should have strangled you to death with my own hands!"

Liu En stood in front of Zhao Yiyi: "Empress Dowager, please speak carefully."

Chen Lin is still crying: "Retribution is not good! Retribution is not good!"

Zhao Yiyi waved his hand: "Okay, let's be quiet for a while."

Chen Lin clapped her hands immediately, and Liu E stood on the ground, covering her chest, still laughing wildly: "Haha, you actually became the emperor! You finally became the emperor!"

Zhao Yiyi nodded: "Maybe I was born to be the emperor. This is the destiny, and there is no way."

Liu E yelled: "Fuck him. Damn dog. Fucking destiny——"

Zhao Yiyi asked Liu En to pour him a cup of tea: "After talking so much, I'm thirsty. If my mother is also thirsty, please have a cup too."

Liu E sneered again and again: "What the emperor wants, why not just say it!"

Zhao Yiyi sighed: "I said that my mother is always forgetful, but my mother still doesn't admit it."

"I came to look for my mother today to ask my mother to summon the King of Xiangyang to the capital, and escort the King of Xiangyang back in a good name."

Liu E looked at him fixedly: "And then?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "What else?"

He said to Chen Lin: "Eunuch Chen has worked hard, go down and rest."

After hearing the words, Chen Lin took the order, and walked out of the palace gate in a daze.

After blurting out a secret that had been buried for 16 years, it seemed to take half his life away.

After Chen Lin left, Zhao Yiyi asked Liu E: "What else does the queen mother want?"

Liu E said: "Why, is the emperor still pretending to be a mother and child with this palace?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "Of course not. I have pretended to be a filial son for eight years, and I am a little disgusted."

Liu E sneered again and again.

Zhao Yiyi said: "I'll just talk to my mother like this. After my mother dies, do you want to be Queen Zhang Xianming Su, or do you want to be a sinner Liu E?"

Liu E asked, "What does the emperor mean?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "To be honest, the world is still uncertain, and it is still useful for me to keep my mother. If my mother wants to be Zhang Xianming Su's queen, she will cooperate with me honestly. When I settle these things, my mother can ride a crane. After my mother rides a crane, I will bury my mother with the ceremony of a queen mother, Zhang Xianming Su, which is the posthumous title I chose for my mother."

Liu E said: "The emperor has a heart."

Zhao Yiyi said: "I will not pursue my mother's faults in the past, and I don't even need to mention the matter of my mother's dictatorship in the past few years. I will give my mother a posthumous order. The premise is that in the past two years, my mother must fully cooperate with me. .”

Liu E said, "What if I want to be a sinner?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "Three feet of white silk, a cup of poisonous wine, I will not want it in the name of a filial son, and I will make my mother a bad name for thousands of years."

Liu E asked, "Then what are you going to do with Zhao Jue?"

Zhao Yiyi said: "I even killed my mother, do you still care about killing an uncle?"

Liu E nodded: "Zhang Xian Ming Su is considered a beautiful posthumous posthumous title."

Zhao Yiyi smiled: "It's good that the mother and queen communicate with each other."

Liu E sat back on the couch and waved to Zhao Yiyi: "The palace is exhausted, the emperor can go. I haven't seen the king of Xiangyang for many years, and I miss him very much. I am getting older, and I see each other less. After a few days, I will call Let's meet the King of Xiangyang when he comes to Beijing."

Zhao Yiyi said: "Then I won't bother the queen mother."

He was about to leave when Liu E suddenly stopped him: "It was indeed Guo Huai who told you about this?"

Zhao Yiyi turned around: "Of course."

Liu E looked at the snowball in his arms pointingly: "The cat, the emperor, has been raised for some time."

Zhao Yiyi touched Xueqiu's head: "It's cute, isn't it?"

Liu E nodded: "It's quite cute."

Back in the Yuchen Palace bedroom, Zhao Yiyi put down the snowball and threw herself on the bed: "I finally got mad at her once!"

With the help of Liu E, the matter of King Xiangyang's rebellion will be resolved much easier.

Not only the King of Xiangyang, he will overthrow Kou Zhun next, and support Di Qing as a privy envoy to directly command the imperial army.Using military personnel as privy envoys violated the ancestral system, and the privy envoys directly commanded the troops simply overthrew the military system of the Song Dynasty, which would inevitably attract extremely strong opposition from the conservatives.

If we don't kill a few people, I'm afraid we won't be able to suppress this kind of opposition.

For things like killing people, just leave it to Liu E.

I am a benevolent gentleman, how can a benevolent gentleman kill someone?

All the work with dirty hands was left to Liu E.

When the dirty work was almost done, Liu E was sent to heaven with a glass of poisoned wine.

perfect.

Zhao Yiyi rolled over on the bed, pinching Xueqiu's fatter cheeks: "When will my cousin come back from Xixia, I've been waiting for him until he has two children."

Snowball looked at him innocently and meowed.

"What else can you do besides meowing?"

Zhao Yiyi looked at it with disgust: "Eat more than anyone else, and move less than anyone else. Look at Zhan Zhao, you can go to the house and watch the house. You are also a royal cat, why are you so lazy? You Do you want to move?"

Snowball licked his paw, turned his head and ignored him.

Zhao Yiyi played with its tail for a while, and seeing that it didn't move, he let it go resentfully.

Suddenly a little eunuch came down from the corridor and whispered something to Liu En, who came in with a frown.

Zhao Yiyi asked lazily: "What's the matter?"

Liu En said: "Zhan Zhao is outside the palace, please see Your Majesty."

Zhao Yiyi sat up: "This man can't help but talk about him, and he arrived when he was talking about him. Shouldn't he be in Yingtian Mansion with Bao Zheng? Has something changed over there?"

Liu En shook his head: "He didn't say that, he just said that he wants to face the saint."

Zhao Yiyi said: "Call him in, anyway, there is no court meeting today."

The little eunuch who sent the message returned the same way, and not long after, Zhan Zhao came walking on the snow.

Zhao Yiyi yelled at Xueqiu: "Learn."

Liu En directly brought Zhan Zhao into Zhao Yiyi's bedroom. Seeing that his eyes were black and bloodshot, Zhao Yiyi knew that he came overnight and must have something important to do, so he asked, "What's going on?"

Zhan Zhao gritted his teeth: "The officials, the grassroots are incompetent, and have lost the imperial decree of the officials, so please forgive me and give me another one."

Zhao Yiyi knew that he was not a careless person, so he asked him carefully about the cause and effect of losing the imperial edict.

Zhan Zhao then repeated what Gongsun Ce said one by one.

After hearing this, Zhao Yiyi smiled: "This uncle, I want to destroy your imperial decree, and tell you to tie your hands and feet, and dare not let go of the investigation. After all, he is my uncle, and I don't want to get angry if there is no real evidence." Him. So be it."

He handwritten a note and handed it to Zhan Zhao: "I won't give you any imperial decree anymore. It's a thin piece of paper, easy to lose. You take this piece of paper and go to Nanqing Palace to find the Eight Worthy Kings."

Zhan Zhao took the paper.

"Eight Wise Kings have a golden mace bestowed by the Emperor Taizong. They are used to beat down the king and punish the courtiers. If you borrow this golden mace, the King of Xiangyang will not dare to be presumptuous after seeing it."