Placid Chang'an

In mid-February, the capital is the time when grass grows and warblers fly. Another scientific examination is coming soon. Thousands of officials gather in the capital. Young men in green shirts can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys. Newcomers and new atmosphere finally dissipate some of the haze that has been shrouded .

No one expected that at this moment, a shocking event happened in Beijing.

The first emperor's Zhaoling, located in the western suburbs, was stolen.

What's more interesting is that the tomb robber was discovered shortly thereafter, in an open space half a mile away from the imperial mausoleum, and he was already dead when he was discovered.

He was wearing gold, silver and jewels that had just been brought out from Zhaoling, but his body was burnt black, but there was no combustible material to ignite the fire around, and there was no trace of being restrained, as if he had burned himself for no reason. .

This method of death can not help but remind one of an old case. After an inspection by the assistant of Dali Temple, the tomb robber actually had some connection with that case—a case of offering sacrifices to heaven two years ago involved the family of Shen Cun, a famous calligrapher and painter in central Sichuan. In the murder case of 32 people, there were three murderers at that time, two of them had already surrendered in the case of offering sacrifices to heaven, and the remaining one, Liu Kang, was arrested and convicted by Su Cen of Dali Temple at that time, and then detained in the Ministry of Punishment, waiting to be executed after autumn. .

I never thought that after the autumn of that year, there would be a double-king chaos, policies would be changed day and night, and the court would be in chaos. People who should have had a round of Mengpo soup have lived well until now—or two days ago.

No one paid attention to how Liu Kang escaped from the sky prison, and how he entered the imperial tomb guarded by layers of guards. They only knew that this person originally made his fortune by reselling Ming weapons, but now he has a wicked heart. On the head of the first emperor.

There are many discussions about this in the streets and alleys. Some say that there is an anti-theft mechanism hidden in Zhaoling Mausoleum, and the things in the tomb can spontaneously ignite when exposed to light.It is also said that if you do many unrighteous acts, you will die yourself. This kind of person has stolen so many tombs, and sooner or later he will die on them.It is more about ghosts and gods, either the ghost of the Shen family came to him to claim his life, or the late emperor appeared and sent fire from heaven to punish the wicked.

There were different opinions among the people, and before they could come up with a unified theory, another big event happened in the court.

The Empress Dowager Chu's national mourning period expired, and on the first day of the court, Yu Wang Li Sheng did not come to the court.

Those who followed Li Sheng did not come to court, and there were half-court officials.

Hanyuan Hall, which used to be full of vitriol and quarrels, suddenly lost half of the people, and seemed inexplicably deserted. The little emperor glanced at Yuxia, sat on the dragon chair and waved his hands as usual, "Everyone is flat."

The emperor's uncle had taught him for so many years to be calm in the face of danger and calm in the face of changes, and now it finally came in handy.

"What do you want to play, gentlemen?"

The court was silent, deathly silent.

Half of the people in the court were missing, and the emperor didn't even ask. What could be a bigger matter than this?Was he afraid of Li Sheng, or had he lost his mind?Could it be that the next day when Li Sheng was forced outside the palace and Da Zhou died, the little emperor knew to ask, "Where are my people?"

In fact, on the day before the restoration of the dynasty, all the officials' homes received a letter. The content of the letter was very simple, just four words: Chongde Zhongxing.

The meaning is also very simple, without the last obstacle of the Empress Dowager Chu, Li Sheng has long since ignored the 12-year-old little emperor.

Today, only half of the people came to court, and half of them were holding a wait-and-see attitude. As the silence spread in the Hanyuan Hall, the last point of persistence began to waver.

After being silent for half a stick of incense, the little emperor sighed softly, stood up from the dragon chair, and walked slowly to the ministers, "You have nothing to say to me, so let me talk to you. "

The little emperor sat on the ground, and the officials shouted that he couldn't do it. The little emperor waved his hand and said softly: "My mother and concubine are dead."

The court fell silent for a while.

The little emperor casually pointed to an old minister whose hair was half-blown, "Is Zunci still alive?"

The courtier hastily bowed, "I don't dare, I still have an eighty-year-old mother at home."

The little emperor nodded, "You are so lucky."

Pointing to everyone again, "You are all better off than me. I became the throne at the age of six, which means that my father died when I was six years old. Although you often have older emperors than younger ones, I am here to say something outrageous." If not, I don’t really have any impression of him.”

"Father is weak and doesn't have much time to take care of me. I used to live a carefree life. Suddenly one day, a team ran to the imperial garden and knelt in front of me and called me 'Emperor'."

The little emperor casually pointed at someone again, "Did you know what an emperor was when you were six years old? Did you know how to be an emperor?"

The man knelt on the ground with a plop, unable to bow down, "I dare not!"

"Get up, I want you to get up!" The little emperor said it again, and then he dared to stand up tremblingly, and then said: "You don't know, and I don't know either. All I know is that I don't have a father anymore, in the imperial garden The good days of catching dragonflies and grasshoppers are coming to an end, and my mother and concubine don't like me as much as before. Later, an uncle came from the border, and he was fierce at every turn. It's a lie to say that I don't complain, someone is there every day How could you not complain when you mentioned it face-to-face?"

"Queen Mother, Uncle Emperor, I have been caught between them ever since, in a dilemma. During those days, you must have known better than me, King Ning's Party, Queen Mother's Party, I don't know which party you were at the beginning, but no matter what, they all It's for my own good. But now, the mother and concubine are gone, the whereabouts of the emperor's uncle are unknown, and they are all gone."

"That's why I say you are blessed. When you come home from court, there are old people and young people. The family is happy and happy. But I guard such a big palace, but I don't know where I can go."

Gradually, there was a sound of sobbing. Everyone was used to seeing the little emperor sitting behind the imperial case and being manipulated by others, but this was the first time he understood the puppet emperor's heart so closely. This is the emperor and a child. He was even younger than his own children, but he had to bear a burden that he shouldn't have to bear at this age.

"In the final analysis, I am not a good emperor," a sigh slid gently on the hall, "Wan Fang is guilty, and I am the one to blame. I said this not to make you pity me, but you have to pity the thousands of people in Da Zhou." The common people, the common people, there are also your parents, wives and children, they trust you, put their wealth and life in your hands, as their parents and officials, the sky is falling, you have to stand for them!"

The little emperor stood up abruptly, "I am the emperor, I will be the first one, who else would like to be with me?"

Wen Xiu took the lead and said: "I am willing to follow Your Majesty, even if I die."

Zheng Yang and Zhang Jun continued: "I am willing to follow Your Majesty, even if I die."

The officials stared at the little emperor who seemed to have grown up suddenly for a while, and they were taken aback for a while, and shouted in unison: "The ministers are willing to follow His Majesty, and I will not hesitate to die!"

The little emperor returned to the dragon chair and sat down, "This chair is not as comfortable as you imagined, but I still want to fight for it. I can't hand over the seat left to me by the queen mother and the emperor's uncle. If the emperor finds out , he will scold me to death when he comes back."

The officials burst into laughter, and the little emperor also smiled, and waited for the silence to continue before continuing: "Okay, let's talk, I will ask one more question now, do you have a book to play?"

Wen Xiu took a step forward and said, "I have a book to play."

The little emperor nodded, and Wen Xiu said: "Yu Wang Li Sheng is ambitious, treacherous and evil, and what he committed is the capital crime of treason. I request that he be arrested and brought to justice. The punishment will be clear, the officials will be governed, and the court will be governed! Today is absent without reason. Those who do not come to the court can be treated as contempt for the imperial power, and should be punished slightly to show the imperial prestige."

There was a moment of silence in the courtroom, these courtiers who had been subdued for a long time were finally forced to show their last bit of blood, and there was a sound of reconsideration in the court.

But Zhang Jun shook his head, "Li Sheng is in the Taiji Palace in front, who will go? Who can catch him? The reason why he dares to be so confident under our noses is because he knows that we will not move now." without him."

The little emperor said: "Miss Wen, tell everyone what's going on now."

Wen Xiu pursed his lips, "Let's not talk about the courtiers. In terms of military power alone, the forbidden army is divided into two groups. I have changed the forbidden army on the side of Daming Palace. They are all our people, and Taiji Palace is theirs." The soldiers of the Twelve Guards were left to me by the prince, but the Sixth Commander of the East Palace was still in Li Sheng's hands. The Zhechong Mansion near Gyeonggi is basically half and half, and the ones that are farther away will not be able to catch up for a while. , and what's more... I just received the news that the border has changed recently, so all the soldiers stationed at the border can't move."

After hearing what Wen Xiu said, everyone felt tense, that is to say, the strength of the two sides is already mixed, but Li Sheng still has a sword in his hand that is beyond the rituals of the Great Zhou and kills invisiblely - the secret door .

There was a long silence again, and I don't know who said, "It would be great if the prince was here."

A spark that had been silent for a long time suddenly jumped up in the hearts of the officials following these words.

Zhang Jun licked his lips, and stood up shyly, "I have a disrespectful idea."

The little emperor nodded, "Master Zhang, please tell me."

Zhang Jun rushed to the case and cupped his hands, "The time has come to avenge the prince."

A stone stirred up thousands of waves, and there was an uproar in the hall.

The most direct reason why King Ning and Li Shi were convicted was that the eunuch Chen Ying revealed that King Ning was the murderer who killed the late emperor. Now that the Zhaoling Mausoleum has been stolen, Feng Shui has been destroyed. It was a matter of certainty, the late emperor's body was about to move, so why not take a look at how people died?

The little emperor frowned slightly, and before he could speak, a sixty-year-old official knelt down, "This is God's will! Let me tell you how that Liu Kang escaped from the heavily guarded prison and how he died." It's like that. This is the manifestation of the late emperor. The late emperor couldn't bear to see my country perish, so he sent an oracle to bless me!"

The courtiers who had been suppressed by Li Sheng for a long time seemed to have seen the last glimmer of hope. They knelt on the ground in the Hanyuan Hall. The group of pillars of the country who had finished reading the sage books cried and shouted that the late emperor appeared, compared to when the late emperor passed away. Cry even harder.

The little emperor couldn't laugh or cry, and he could only wave his hand for a while, "It's ready."

At noon the next day, the little emperor brought only a eunuch holding a lamp and Ning Santong to Zhaoling. When he came back, he didn't say a word, and sat on the steps in front of the palace all night.

The next day, it was announced to the world that the death of the first emperor had nothing to do with King Ning, and the whole country respectfully welcomed King Ning back to the palace.