Su Buwei carefully wrapped the brocade quilt around the emperor's knees, and wrapped the emperor's legs very gently. The emperor was leaning on the recliner as if in a daze, his eyes looking at the sky motionless. No one knew why, it was such a joyous event that Xiangcheng was conquered, but the emperor was not happy at all. He did not even enter Li Yuanshan's palace but chose a house belonging to a wealthy man in the city to stay.
When it was warm in the afternoon, the emperor asked Su Buwei to help him come out of the house, chose a clean and sunny place, and lay down on a deck chair to rest.
It has been at least ten days since the Emperor came out for air. This Supreme Being, who is not old according to his grade, is already very old.
"It's still windy outside. If Your Majesty feels unwell, we'll go back."
Su Buwei said lightly.
The emperor nodded slightly and looked away from the blue sky with some difficulty.
"Is everyone here?"
The emperor asked.
Su Buwei lowered his head and said: "Except General Gao Kaitai who is still arranging his troops and manpower outside Xiangcheng, all other civil and military officials are already waiting in Haoran Palace."
The emperor hummed: "Where's Jin Shixiong?"
"Bathing and changing."
The two young eunuchs walked slowly into the courtyard each holding a stack of memorials. Su Buwei waved his hand to signal them to leave first. The emperor glanced at them, raised his hand and waved it as if to ward off flies: "Take it, take it I won't read the memorial today, and I won't read it in the future. I will send someone back to the capital to tell the prince that I am slightly unwell." If you don't feel well, don't send zhezi to the army in the future. Let him and the Queen discuss everything."
"Here"
Su Buwei responded and winked at the two young eunuchs to leave quickly.
"Su Buwei, I know that you usually like astrology divination, but I blame you for not being able to do it openly. Now that you have nothing to do, can you help me calculate my fortune today?"
Su Buwei quickly replied: "I have already calculated it before, everything is fine today."
"What a good day"
The emperor waved his hand: "Then help me up and let's go to Haoran Hall."
Su Buwei helped the emperor up, and it happened that the chamberlain led Jin Shixiong to come to see him. The emperor glanced at him and said calmly: "Let's not say anything else for now. I have wronged you to live in a cage at Jinyi School these days. I will give you an explanation later. Follow me and tell me about you as you go. I picked up the happy things about the past few years on Langru Mountain with Prince Xu, and said, I don¡¯t want to hear about the sad and miserable things today.¡±
"Here"
Jin Shixiong nodded, and then glanced at Su Buwei doubtfully. Su Buwei sighed slightly, his expression solemn.
The Haoran Hall was built by Li Yuanshan. Although it is not as grand as the Taiji Hall in Chang'an City, it is not small in terms of scale. When the emperor was carried outside the Haoran Hall, he took a special look and actually smiled in a good mood and said that the word "Haoran" was well chosen. Unfortunately, Li Yuanshan did not have the Qi of "Haoran" so he could not sit firmly in the hall.
Outside the main hall, two rows of golden melon warriors stood upright, majestic.
In the main hall, at least one hundred and twenty civil and military officials have been waiting here for a long time. Xiangcheng's great victory, almost everyone had a smile on their face. Li Yuanshan defended Xiangcheng for twenty days, but finally failed to withstand the offensive of the imperial army and fled hastily from the west gate. The victory of Xiangcheng was of great significance, enough to leave a heavy mark in the history books. This is Li Yuanshan's hometown and the place where he claims to be king. The imperial court's recapture of Xiangcheng is equivalent to announcing that Li Yuanshan's rebel regime is about to collapse.
Seeing the emperor come in, all the courtiers immediately bowed to greet him.
Su Buwei helped the emperor up the nine steps and slowly sat down on the chair where Li Yuanshan had been sitting for three years.
"I congratulate Your Majesty. Once Xiangcheng is defeated, Li Ni's end will be near."
Someone began to praise the emperor's majesty, and the echoers immediately decorated the emperor's image with more colorful sentences. Although the emperor looks like an old tree that has almost withered, he is still a towering mountain in the words of praise.
"Everyone, get up."
The emperor said lightly and seemed to be in a better mood. Ever since he learned that Xiangcheng had been captured and Li Yuanshan retreated with his remaining soldiers, the emperor had not seen a smile on his face. Perhaps he was infected by the ministers, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised. At this time, the courtiers were almost in a trance, vaguely remembering His Majesty's graceful appearance before the Western Expedition.
"I am actually happy today, so I feel more comfortable listening to your words of praise than before. Since the defeat of the Western Expedition and the fall of the northwest, I have not been truly happy for three years. Every time I think of the Three RiversThousands of people in the mountains are waiting for me to rescue them, and my heart hurts like a knife. It was a good thing that Xiangcheng was destroyed. Although Li Yuanshan was not executed, his end was not far away, wasn't it? "
"Li Ni will be executed in the blink of an eye!"
Someone else stood up and started a second wave of praise.
The emperor smiled and nodded: "You have worked hard with me on the Western Expedition I have been thinking about what kind of rewards should be given to you after the rebellion is suppressed to commend your achievements? This thing makes me think I have a headache. Look at you people. You are from a well-known family and have a lot of money. You will not pay attention to the rewards of money or titles. Many of you are already the princes of the country. So I am worried about how to satisfy all of you. "
"It is my duty to serve His Majesty, and I dare not claim merit."
"It is my greatest honor to be able to share your Majesty's worries."
"I am a slave in front of the saddle and behind the horse, I only want to follow your majesty!"
After not seeing the emperor for many days, everyone felt better and depressed, so flattery words that had not been used for a while immediately came out of their mouths skillfully, still in such a sincere tone.
The emperor seemed to enjoy it very much. He raised his hand and pressed it down and said gently: "Fortunately, I have thought about it for a long time and it was not in vain. I finally thought of the most appropriate and honorable reward for you."
Everyone fell silent, waiting for the emperor's next words. There was more or less expectation in everyone's eyes, and there was also a kind of pride that was deliberately hidden.
The next words they heard shocked everyone!
"My health is getting worse day by day, and the more I get to this moment, the more reluctant I am to let go of my relationship with you as a monarch. So I suddenly thought, wouldn't it be nice to take you with me and continue to be a monarch in another world? What do you think?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the hall suddenly became silent in shock.
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The emperor seemed very satisfied with the reaction of the courtiers and couldn't help laughing. A bright and bright smile filled his thin face. He pointed at the ministers one by one: "Those of you who are following me on the expedition, I carefully considered whether to bring them with me. I really put a lot of thought into them. I didn¡¯t bring any of the annoying ones that I despise. You are all my favorite ministers, so I want to do this. You should all be happy about the reward, right?"
A civil servant's face turned pale with fright, and he said to himself with a trembling voice: "Your Majesty Your Majesty, this is a joke"
"It's not a joke."
The emperor smiled and said: "You have no joke."
He waved his hand, and Su Buwei immediately shouted outside the hall. Immediately afterwards, a large number of Jinyi schools poured into Haoran Hall, and the sharp horizontal knives in their hands were already unsheathed. The door of Haoran Hall was closed, and the light in the hall immediately dimmed.
"Your Majesty!"
Someone said in horror: "Your Majesty, why is this happening?"
"Why?"
The emperor shook his head: "You guys you said you were willing to follow me just now, why have your expressions changed now?"
He paused and breathed a sigh of relief: "At this moment, I am happiest to have made this decision. I was still hesitant at first, but I saw you all laughing because Xiangcheng was breached. At this time, I know that I can no longer hesitate You are not idiots, and I am naturally neither. So you don't have to pretend to be stupid anymore Xiangcheng is broken, is it really worth being happy? Isn't it that I have regained a piece of lost ground? But I am happy that I am about to walk into the trap dug by your new master."
"I will not wrong any of you. Don't you have private correspondence with Li Yuanshan? Li Yuanshan needs your secret help to persuade me to follow the trap he has set step by step. But what you don't know is that Li Yuanshan Now I don¡¯t need you either¡¡±
He waved, and then two Jinyi Schoolmen came in carrying a bamboo basket.
"Li Yuanshan deliberately kept all the letters between him and you people. What do you think he wanted to do?"
The emperor smiled and felt more and more comfortable.
"Your Majesty, do you want to make enemies of all the aristocratic families in the world?"
Someone finally couldn¡¯t bear the pressure and stood up, pointing at the emperor and roaring.
The emperor smiled and said: "Don't you all always wonder why I only brought 200,000 soldiers for this Western Expedition, but recruited millions of brave people? I tell you now, I know that my army has already It's unreliable. And if I want to get rid of you, I can't get rid of you even if I have those generals with heavy troops. Maybe you will join forces and send me to the underworld first. This is why I recruited you.Being brave is to separate you from the army Speaking of which, what I am sorry for are those people who are willing to serve the country. They followed me to the northwest, but I know that few of them can return alive. But they are my people, and they should stand up when I need them. "
"You said that I am an enemy of the world's aristocratic families"
The emperor was silent for a while and suddenly raised his voice: "I have wanted to do this for more than a day or two. I really didn't have the courage to admit it before, but I have it today!"
"In this expedition to the west, countering rebellion is only one aspect. The most important thing is to leave a clean court for the prince and take away a group of unclean and dirty ghosts. I know how Li Yuanshan arranged it. You guys Everyone knows that it is precisely because of Li Yuanshan's arrangements that I have the opportunity to get rid of you peopleI will use myself, millions of people's bravery, and millions of rebels to bury you with you, be contentnot long after , the imperial army will be defeated somewhere west of Xiangcheng, and the rebels will enter the camp. None of you loyal and patriotic ministers are willing to surrender. I will die generously and even give each of you a posthumous reward when I am bored. The decree has been written down and will be sent to the capital after today, so the prince will not have to do this boring thing again."
Either because he had just taken the medicine or because he was excited, the emperor's complexion was getting better and better: "I know that Li Yuanshan dug a big hole and planned to fill it in. Luo Yao was also helping him fill it. There are people like you. But I have also dug a big hole. I have exchanged my life and the lives of millions of brave men who are loyal to me for the lives of Li Yuanshan and Luo Yao! The country, so I have to leave him with a piece of flesh cut out but not destroyed to the core. And you will never know where the hole I dug is."
"You are all smart people, but you all treat me like an idiot."
The emperor sighed: "If I were in good health, I would really be too lazy to kill you in this way. I would spend ten, twenty or even thirty years to get rid of you and your family bit by bit, but you You still don¡¯t realize that I want to exterminate your centuries-old family. I have this ability Unfortunately, God doesn¡¯t give me much time. I have killed many people since I came to the throne, but you always think that I am. As the gentlest emperor in the Sui Dynasty, I have always been very proud to have deceived you. If I have enough time, I plan to be proud of it for the rest of my life. "
Everyone opened their mouths and looked at the eloquent emperor.
The emperor leaned forward slightly, looked at the panicked courtiers, smiled and said proudly: "When I am in good health, I play slowly. When I am in bad health, I play quickly. But I want to play. When the time comes, you all can only be played obediently.¡±