bastard returns

The next thing is much easier to handle, just ceding a state and county, it is not possible to reach an agreement by just talking about it, and another person has to be sent from Huajing to send a document written by Emperor Zhou himself. Only after the pretentious parties signed their signatures and pledged can it be considered a success.

But since Sikongxuan said that Emperor Zhou had agreed to this matter, the Empress Dowager Xia was not afraid of the other party's mischief, and she was in a good mood, and immediately ordered a banquet in the palace, and left all Sikongxuan's people in the palace to enjoy the banquet. The ringing continued until midnight before letting the group leave.

Although the agreement has not yet been formally signed, the army of Da Zhou is very knowledgeable. A few days after the banquet, Zhou Jun, who was still confronting Xia Jun, withdrew from the territory of Yanzhou completely like a tide, as if the entire Yanzhou Zhou just gave in.

After the Empress Dowager Xia found out, she would naturally not let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. While ordering the army to occupy Yanzhou, she also secretly asked her cousin and nephew to take a group of Murong family soldiers to the northwest corner of Yanzhou Near an uninhabited Gobi, it was claimed to be stationed in name, but in fact, when this group of personal soldiers set up camp, most of the Gobi was immediately sealed off, and no one else was allowed to enter or leave. It haunts the Gobi, as if looking for something.

"Reporting to the Queen Mother, Major General Murong has led his troops to the place designated by the Queen Mother." The old eunuch bowed to the Queen Mother Xia to report the news that just came from outside the palace, while holding a letter in both hands, "This is the message from the Major General. Please write a letter from the Empress Dowager."

Immediately, a court lady presented the letter to the Empress Dowager Xia, and the Empress Dowager waved her hand and said, "Understood, you go out to serve first, and don't come in without the order of Ai's family."

The old eunuch and the maids all around claimed yes, quickly retreated, and walked to the palace gate along the way.

The Empress Dowager Xia unhurriedly opened the letter paper, glanced at it, then smiled, turned her head to the person who was fanning him with an incense fan, "Very good, you tell Mourning The news from my family is indeed true, my nephew has already found several pieces of iron ore in the Gobi.”

The man hastily put down his fan, knelt down and kowtowed, "Since this villain has been entrusted to the Queen Mother, naturally I dare not lie to the Queen Mother." Sikong Xu, the favorite of Empress Dowager Xia.

Empress Dowager Xia nodded and said: "You have some skills, and you can be regarded as a sense of humor, but Ai's family praises you now, and it doesn't mean that Ai's family really believes in you. You have to know one thing, no matter how loudly you think about those small calculations in your heart, you can't calculate them." What are you mourning for your family, you will only do many unrighteous actions and kill yourself, do you understand?"

Sikong Xu was stunned for a moment, then flattered and said with a flattering smile: "The empress dowager speaks seriously. Ever since entering the palace, the villain has always followed the empress dowager's lead, so how could he have any small plans..."

The Empress Dowager Xia sneered, "Put away those lies, and don't show this in front of the Ai family, but since you gave such a gift as fine iron ore to the Ai family, the Ai family is not a ignorant person, or the same sentence In other words, when the Ai family dominates the world in the future, they will naturally reward you based on their meritorious deeds, title you a king, give you a piece of land, and let you live happily."

Sikong Xu was overjoyed, and at the same time he said convincingly: "Since the major general has discovered the ore in that Gobi, it must be that the refined iron ore is safe. With the help of this kind of ore, the Murong family will definitely become a great Xia. The most powerful family, the Empress Dowager will rule the world, and the day when she will make great achievements is just around the corner, so the villain will congratulate the Empress Dowager first." After speaking, he kowtowed again.

"According to your auspicious words, what the Emperor Gaozu failed to do back then will one day be accomplished by Aijia." The empress dowager's glamorous eyes flashed with light, as if she had seen her indomitable meritorious deeds, worshiped from all directions, The magnificent scene of Fenglin Tianxia.

It's a pity that just when the Empress Dowager Xia was full of confidence and felt that the refined iron ore was at her fingertips, something unexpected happened.

Not a few days later, another letter came into the palace in a hurry. The Empress Dowager Xia thought it was iron ore and found something amazing, so she opened the letter with a very happy mood. After reading the contents of the letter, I couldn't believe my eyes for a moment. The contents of the letter were indeed an astonishing discovery in the fine iron ore, but to my disappointment, this "amazing" discovery was not a good thing.

"What? It turned out to be the worst iron mine!" Empress Dowager Xia tremblingly squeezed the letter paper in her hand. If she didn't know the source of this letter, she would even wonder if it was someone else's deliberate trick to play on her. .

It was written clearly on the letterhead that the Major General Murong who led this team of soldiers was one of the very few close friends of the Empress Dowager Xia who knew the secret of the refined iron ore. The good news was sent back to the palace, and they led a group of reliable people to dig on the spot where the ore was found. Although they could not go deep into the ore like real miners, they still dug three feet into the ground due to the large number of people. Thousands of catties of ore were dug out from the surface layer, and a batch of them was quietly transported back to Murong's house, preparing to refine a batch of refined iron and store it in case of emergencies.

But when the Murong family recruited skilled craftsmen to start a furnace to smelt iron, those experienced iron smelters saw the ores delivered, and immediately asserted that these ores were not fine iron ore at all, but a batch of bad iron ore. mine.

The so-called bad iron ore, although the word "iron ore" is also attached to it, is completely different from the grade of refined iron ore. It contains not only the most common pig iron, but also very little iron ore. However, one catty of bad iron ore may not be able to smelt one catty of pig iron.

Master Murong turned pale with shock when he heard the news. After confirming that what the iron smelter said was correct and that the batch of iron ore was all worthless, bad iron ore, he sent people to go to the Gobi where the ore was mined to investigate. Knowing that the thousands of catties of ore dug up by the guards there were also bad iron ore, he felt that the matter was really serious, and immediately sent the news to the palace.

That is the letter in the hands of the Empress Dowager Xia.

"How is this possible... How could refined iron ore turn into bad iron ore..." The Empress Dowager Xia couldn't believe her eyes at all, she frowned tightly, her eyes were cloudy, "Come here! Give Sikong Xu Aijia, come up!"

By now, Empress Dowager Xia has already understood that where there is any refined iron ore, it is clearly Sikong Xu who is trying to deceive him, how bold it is!In fact, if you think about it carefully, if there is really refined iron ore in the territory of Yanzhou, there is no reason for Da Zhou not to discover it after so many years. He cheated her trust with something and made her lose face. She must not let him go!

The Empress Dowager Xia sat there, the more she thought about it, the angrier she became, her fingernails wanted to get caught in the armrest of the phoenix chair. Not long after, Sikong Xu was escorted into the palace by two eunuchs with an inexplicable expression. He didn't know what happened. What's the matter, when he knelt in front of the phoenix chair and saw the angry face of the Empress Dowager Xia, he couldn't help but thumped in his heart, and asked tentatively: "The Empress Dowager recruited a villain, but..."

"Slap!" Before he finished speaking, the Empress Dowager Xia slapped him hard on the face, knocking his cheek to one side.

"The empress dowager calm down, the villain is terrified!" Si Kongxu was taken aback, he already understood that something must have happened, he didn't care about the three seven twenty-one, he didn't care about the pain in his cheek, he immediately bent down and begged for mercy.

"Calm down? The Ai family can't wait to kill you right now! You really think that the Ai family is so easy to deceive!" After the Empress Dowager Xia finished speaking, she seemed to be still angry, and slapped her face again.

Even if Sikong Xu wanted to hide, he didn't dare to hide, he could only let the slap continue to be slapped on his face, the corner of his mouth was numb with pain, he couldn't help crying inwardly, wondering what the hell this woman was going crazy, and what was wrong with him Did he offend her?

"The villain is really terrified. I don't understand what the queen mother is saying. If the villain is wrong, can I ask the queen mother to make it clear..." Si Kongxu knocked his head in fear. The momentum of the queen mother is really scary. Sikong Xu even He could feel that the other party might give an order to kill him immediately, he was already living under someone else's roof, if the Empress Dowager Xia issued this order, he would surely die.

"See for yourself!" The Empress Dowager Xia seemed unwilling to talk nonsense with him, so she threw the letter in her hand to his face.

Sikong Xu hurriedly picked it up, glanced at it hastily, his expression changed drastically, and he screamed: "This is impossible!"

"Impossible? This letter was written by Aijia's father himself. Why is it impossible!" The Empress Dowager Xia sneered, "Don't tell me that Aijia found the wrong location of the iron mine? You swore to tell Aijia about the location Yes! What you dug up right now are all worthless iron ore, what else do you have to say!"

"This... this..." Sikong Xu was dripping with cold sweat on his forehead, he was completely flustered, he was in a fog, and he was clearly right, that place was indeed a place with rich reserves. The refined iron ore, I even brought experienced miners to investigate it on the spot, how could such a moth come out, could it be that the refined iron ore will turn into bad iron ore by itself!

"Queen Mother, there must be some kind of misunderstanding. The villain is so loyal to the Queen Mother, how could there be any deceitful words." Si Kongxu understood that if he didn't want to find a way to figure out this strange matter, he would definitely not be able to do it today. "I ask the queen mother to trust the little one and let the little one investigate this matter in person, and the young one will definitely give the queen mother a satisfactory answer!"

"Believe you?" Empress Dowager Xia suddenly showed an incomparably cold smile.

Sikong Xu's heart skipped a beat immediately.

"Who do you think Aijia is? Aijia understands that this so-called fine iron ore is a huge lie that you used to deceive Aijia in order to survive. You may have expected that Aijia only needs to get it in one day. If you don’t go to Yanzhou, this lie will never be exposed one day, so you can sit back and relax, but you don’t know that Da Zhou will take the initiative to give up Yanzhou, so that your clumsy lie will be exposed. Do you think Aijia will still believe you? people!"

Sikong Xu's whole body was icy cold, the words of Empress Dowager Xia seemed to have poured cold water on him from head to toe, and at the same time he was extremely confused, what he said was clearly true, and he was clearly not lying, why did it become like this?

Empress Dowager Xia took a deep breath, and when she was about to finish her sentence, suddenly another old eunuch rushed into the hall, and because she walked too fast, she almost tripped over the threshold of the hall.

"Empress Dowager, something is wrong!" Seeing Empress Dowager Xia in the palace, the old eunuch didn't care about the pain in his feet, and staggered towards her, "General Li who was stationed on the border of Yanzhou came back with the battle report. Surrounded by enemy troops!"