Emperor's Grace

Three years later.

Yuan Bao ran into the house from outside, shouting happily: "It's snowing! It's snowing! It's snowing, Daddy!"

Zhu Yunjing frowned and put down the book in her hand, hugged Yuan Bao who fell into her arms as soon as she climbed onto the couch, and angrily taught others: "Why are you so happy when it snows? Have you never seen snow or what?" What? How old are you, and you still have no rules at all."

Yuan Bao didn't care about his father's words of reprimand, and stretched out his hand to get enough dim sum, gnawed his mouth full of dim sum, and looked at Zhu Yunjing with big bright eyes: "When will father come back? When can I go to the military camp with father?" ?”

Zhu Yunjing had a headache. It's a good thing that his son is lively and active, but if he is too lively, thinking about fighting and killing all day long, it would not be so wonderful to go to a military camp and make a fuss.Zhu Yunjing's fingers pointed at her son's head: "Little heartless, your father and I have worked so hard to raise you. Your father is not around all day long, but you miss him."

"I like daddy the most!" Yuan Bao's round head rubbed hard against Zhu Yunjing's arms, Zhu Yunjing's face turned dark, did you wipe your mouth clean?

Yuan Bao, who was tired and full from playing outside, finally calmed down, and fell asleep quickly lying on the couch, Zhu Yunjing helped him cover the blanket, and patted the little guy's stomach lightly.

The snow outside the window became more and more lingering, covering the entire yard one after another. Zhu Yunjing looked at it for a while, thinking that He Huailing would not be able to come back today, and felt inexplicably anxious.

When they returned from Yuzhen Kingdom, He Huailing reported all the things they found to the imperial court, and a large number of people were convicted of colluding with the barbarians, collaborating with the enemy and treason. After dealing with these internal troubles, Emperor Zhaoyang finally An order was made to stop accepting the false professed ministers of the barbarians, and He Huailing led the troops out of the customs again, in order to avoid future troubles forever.

In the past three years, He Huailing has been running around fighting everywhere, almost flattening Beiyi, and fought against Fanbang people several times. It was not until more than three months ago that the dust finally settled and returned to Qiongguan.

Yuan Bao, who was already four years old, hadn't seen He Huailing a few times in recent years. He Huailing had just come back for half a month, and the father and son were still a little unfamiliar. He wanted to go horseback riding and archery with He Huailing, and he called He Huailing his father very affectionately, which made He Huailing proud for a long time.

Today is the day when He Huailing came back from the military camp, Zhu Yunjing's eyelids were twitching from early in the morning, He Huailing, who was supposed to be back in the morning, never showed up, and he didn't even send a message back.It was already past noon, and Zhu Yunjing was hesitating whether to ask someone to ask, when the young servant who was guarding outside the courtyard hurried in to report that Master Hou had returned.

He Huailing walked in quickly, but there was no smile on his face, his expression was solemn, Zhu Yunjing immediately frowned: "What's wrong?"

He Huailing looked at him with complicated eyes, paused, and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty is dead."

Zhu Yunjing was stunned, and after a long time, he said, "When did it happen?"

"Ten nights ago, the news reached here this morning."

Zhu Yunjing clenched her fists unconsciously, and looked up at He Huailing: "The new emperor who succeeds... who is it?"

He Huailing looked back at him: "It's His Royal Highness King Rui."

Zhu Yunjing's shoulders suddenly loosened, and she was discouraged as if she had lost all strength.

He Huailing supported him and squeezed his hand: "Don't worry, the matter is over."

Zhu Yunjing asked him: "You didn't lie to me?"

He Huailing said: "How could I lie to you with this kind of thing? It is indeed King Rui who succeeded, but the process was not as you imagined."

Zhu Yunjing's brows tightened again in an instant: "How do you say?"

"When His Majesty passed away, Zhang Ge, the Chief Assistant, took out the imperial decree that His Majesty had placed with him earlier. The imperial decree said that the Ninth Prince was passed on, and King Zhao was the regent to act as the government official. politics."

Zhu Yunjing's eyes widened when he heard the words, and He Huailing shook his head: "The imperial decree has been issued, and all the officials are already going to pay homage to the new king, but King Zhao suddenly jumped out and said that the imperial decree in Zhang Ge's hand is false. , His share here is the real one, and the successor proposed by the imperial decree in his hand is His Royal Highness King Rui."

"……and after?"

He Huailing's eyes darkened: "King Zhao is in charge of the two capital camps, and the Jingwei Army is also under his command. Even the Imperial Palace Imperial Guards listen to him. Even if Zhang Ge is the head of a hundred officials, he can't get along with him." Well, the two couldn't settle down, and the last six cabinet ministers also divided into two factions, and three of them turned against King Zhao. Finally, King Zhao took Mr. Zhang Ge and the other two elders together on the charge of falsely preaching imperial edicts and seeking to usurp the throne. , and this supported His Royal Highness King Rui's ascension to the throne of God."

Zhu Yunjing was speechless for a long time: "...Ah Xuan never said that King Zhao is on good terms with him."

King Zhao is the son of Liang who is favored by Emperor Zhaoyang and has power over the court. He was first the commander-in-chief of the Jingnan camp, and then the commander-in-chief of the Beijing and North camps. After the commander of the guard army colluded with Zhu Yunxun and was punished for treason, even the Jingwei army was handed over to him. In the past few years, the emperor's health has deteriorated day by day, but he is so attached to him that he is kept in the palace every day. Half a year ago, he was given the title of a king with a different surname, and the title given was still the same as the emperor's title "Zhao". Both civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty thought that it would not be unusual for the emperor to directly give him the throne someday. , but no one expected that this King Zhao would support King Rui's aspiration for the crown without hesitation.

These things seemed incredible to Zhu Yunjing and He Huailing, not to mention that Emperor Zhaoyang became unprincipled and more moody because of this illegitimate son, and the intersection of Liang Zhen and Zhu Yunxuan was far beyond their expectations.

He Huailing sighed: "I thought His Majesty would go a little further and pass the throne directly to King Zhao."

They had guessed this possibility as early as three years ago, and there were definitely not a few people in the court who had the same idea as them.

"He may not want to, it's just that Liang Zhen doesn't even want the position of regent, maybe he doesn't want to take up this burden himself, who knows," Zhu Yunjing was worried, "What should he do, Ah Xuan?"

Ascension to the throne does not mean that there will be a prosperous road from now on. One can imagine how bloody the battle for the throne is, and it is no wonder that the news of the emperor's death has been delayed for so many days.

And why did King Zhao help Zhu Yunxuan?The Ninth Prince was his cousin's own son, but he chose to side with Zhu Yunxuan. No matter how he thought about it, it felt weird, and Zhu Yunxuan had never mentioned it in his letters before.

Zhu Yunxuan, can he handle King Zhao?

Zhu Yunjing always felt faintly uneasy, and He Huailing patted him on the shoulder lightly: "Don't think about it too much, at least His Royal Highness King Rui is now the emperor, this is already the best result, the rest can only be done." I’ll talk about it later, I’ll ask people to hang up the white flags, and tell everyone in the whole house to change into plain clothes.”

Only then did Zhu Yunjing gradually regain her senses, closed her eyes, and said in a hoarse voice, "Okay."

In less than a quarter of an hour, the General Military Mansion was replaced with plain white. Zhu Yunjing knelt in front of the brazier, and in a trance, threw the ingot paper money into the basin one by one.Yuan Bao also knelt and sat aside, thinking it was something amusing, he smiled and looked at the cluster of fire jumping in the basin, kept throwing things into it, and exclaimed in his mouth: "It's burning, it's such a big fire... ..."

Seeing that no one responded to him, Yuan Bao raised his head to look at Zhu Yunjing, and met his father's gloomy eyes, the little guy froze for a moment, but fell silent in a daze.

He Huailing personally went to tell the mansion what should be paid attention to and came back, knelt down with Zhu Yunjing and burned the paper money.

Seeing Zhu Yunjing's indifferent expression, He Huailing couldn't help asking him: "Queer... Do you want to be filial?"

It only takes one year to observe the national funeral, but it takes three years to observe filial piety, and there are many rules, but that person is Zhu Yunjing's father after all.

"Forget it," Zhu Yunjing said lightly, "I'll do what others do."

He Huailing stopped talking, and the two of them burned the things in their hands in silence, and kowtowed in the direction of the capital with their son, and they understood the past and the past.

Two months later, the imperial decree of the new emperor arrived at Qiongguan. He Huailing was transferred to be the commander of the Fujian and Guangdong Navy, and he was ordered to take up the post within two months, while Zhu Yunjing, or Xie Xique, was awarded the National Duke.

The two of them thanked each other, and Zhu Yunjing was very helpless: "He first said that he would give me a princely title, but I refused, but in the end he gave me the title of Duke, really..."

To Zhu Yunjing, these are all false names, but obviously Zhu Yunxuan felt that he could not be completely attached to He Huailing, and he still had to have his own wealth to be stable. Zhu Yunjing had no intention of arguing about these things, but resolutely resigned from the prince and became the Duke of the country It's out of the ordinary, if you are named a king with a different surname, you don't know how attractive it will be. Even now that Zhu Yunxuan is the emperor and has no worries, Zhu Yunjing still doesn't want to make trouble.

He Huailing said: "You can accept it if he gives it to you, at least he misses you as an elder brother."

Regardless of whether Zhu Yunxuan's mind will change in the future, at least at this moment, he is planning for Zhu Yunjing wholeheartedly.

Zhu Yunjing sighed: "I believe in Ah Xuan, and now that my status doesn't threaten him at all, why should he care about me?"

Compared with these, what makes Zhu Yunjing even more happy is the transfer order He Huailing received. His business in Fujian and Guangdong has been expanded in the past few years, and the scale is expanding day by day. He has always wanted to go and see it with his own eyes. He planned to go there when Yuan Bao turned five years old, but he never thought that Zhu Yunxuan would be so considerate to him, and he had already arranged it for him.

He Huailing smiled and hugged his shoulders: "Your Majesty has given you plenty of time. We can walk slowly all the way and visit Jiangnan by the way. It is the best season to go to Jiangnan."

Hearing this, the haze on Zhu Yunjing's face was finally swept away: "Very good!"