Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

Back in Chang'an, as soon as Kuang Heng unloaded his luggage, Shi Xian came to visit. Condolences and greetings, there was a lot of going around for a while.Talking about the result of this trip, Kuang Heng sighed, and explained the situation in detail, Shi Xian's face changed drastically, and after listening, he remained silent for a long time. "Shigong, do you find it surprising?" "Alas!" Shi Xian sighed: "Hu Hanxie is so unreasonable! It's really unexpected." "It can be said to be ruthless." Kuang Heng said: "The most puzzling thing is that after a good talk, turn around and change immediately! I think there must be someone playing tricks."

"Someone is playing tricks?" "Yes, I think it's Mao Yanshou." Shi Xian thought so too, but he couldn't admit it in front of Kuang Heng, because it was Shi Xian's idea that Zhun Mao Yanshou went with Hu Hanxie.Now that Mao Yanshou is willing to be a traitor, he has to bear the main responsibility, so he denies it. "No, no! It must be Shi Hengzhi's trick." He also warned: "Kuang Gong, see you tomorrow, don't mention Mao Yanshou." Kuang Heng nodded, but asked again: "If the emperor asks about Mao Yanshou, what should I say?"

Shi Xian thought for a while and replied: "Sure enough, you only said that Mao Yanshou was dying of illness." That night Shi Xian hardly slept all night.After much deliberation, the matter of using troops is not appropriate after all.Because after he took charge of the Shaofu, he realized that the money was insufficient, and even if the expedition could be successful, it would be a serious blow to the vitality, so peace is the most important thing. The emperor met Kuang Heng in the hall, and after hearing the report, he hit the case with his hands and was furious: "Is it tolerable, which can't be tolerated?"

He resolutely said: "The only thing left is to use troops!" "Please think twice, Your Majesty!" Kuang Heng remonstrated: "The war is dangerous." "Why don't the ministers want to attack and spread the prestige of the country? Helpless," Shi Xian said with difficulty, "this is not the time to use troops." "Why is it not time to use troops?" "Insufficient combat preparations and insufficient financial resources. Moreover, it is difficult to deploy troops due to rain and snow." "Yes." Kuang Heng said, "I also think that the right time and the right place are not good for me."

"Hmph!" the emperor sneered, "I think the most unfavorable thing is Renhe. Let me tell you, I must not be humiliated! If it is difficult to deploy troops due to rain and snow, then send troops in the spring of next year." Shi Xian breathed a sigh of relief.It's still early next spring, and we'll see what happens then. Resigning from the palace, Shi Xian immediately took care of his staff, held a large banquet, and invited the nobles to a gathering.This time, Kuangheng made a very detailed report.In addition to Hu Hanxie's attitude, there is also knowledge along the way, the main one is Hu Hanxie's military deployment.According to him, a war cannot be fought, but if there is no appeasement and a stalemate is forced, it will be difficult to talk about the matter.

Among the invited guests, some were good at military affairs, and some were familiar with border affairs. These two types of people spoke the most and asked Kuang Heng a lot of questions.Although no conclusions were drawn during the meeting, Shi Xian, who had been listening attentively and rarely spoke, had a fairly accurate estimate: at least half of the people believed that since Hu Hanxie was just false threats, he had no determination to risk a war , then the Han Dynasty should not speak lightly and send troops. The other half was divided into two factions: one faction was completely on the side of the emperor, and felt that Hu Hanxie was ungrateful and arrogant, and should call for punishment;To meet each other in battle for the sake of a woman, the teacher will come out of nowhere, and he will lose before the battle.

To sum up, it can be said that those who do not advocate going to war at this time account for a very large majority.Of course, if a court meeting is convened, someone may change the tone.But Shi Xian knew in his heart that even if the people present did not change their words in front of the emperor, it was not appropriate to convene a court meeting, because it would only make the emperor resentful and determined to go his own way. "Shi Gong," Kuang Heng asked quietly: "Today's meeting, the public opinion is clear, shouldn't we hear about the emperor?" "No!" Shi Xian replied in the same low voice: "You should hear about the Empress Dowager."

It was still through Feng Jieyu's way that this important event was heard by the Queen Mother. There is also a request, hoping that the queen mother will persuade the emperor politely and avoid using a commanding tone. The queen mother accepted the request, so she took more moderate measures.First sent someone to spy on the emperor's movements, and the report he got was that the emperor wandered around all night, muttering words, and it was difficult to make a decision on the grand plan of peace and war. That being the case, it is appropriate to dissuade them in time.So when the emperor came to see him as usual, he asked in a loving tone: "I heard that you haven't been able to sleep well at night for the past two days, and you still get up and wander around in the middle of the night. What is it that makes you difficult?"

"Hu Hanxie is rude, do you think the empress already knew about it?" "Yes! This matter should be dealt with." "Exactly. My son is thinking about making peace, so I can't sleep well at night." "So have you considered it?" "The big plan is hard to decide." The emperor replied: "A court meeting must be called." "Look at the civil and military officials, whether there are more main battles or more main peace." "This, it's hard to say." "I advise you not to convene a court meeting." The Queen Mother asked, "Do you understand the reason behind it?"

The queen mother gave some explanations.According to her estimate, there are many ministers who have made peace with each other, so it can be concluded without calling for a deliberation.If the emperor respects the public will, he does not need to go through court discussions, and he does it according to everyone's wishes. Wouldn't it be more wise. After listening to these few words, the emperor was silent for a long time.He also understood in his heart that the empress dowager persuaded him not to convene a court meeting, because the reason for the court meeting was that if the Lord made peace, he would not listen.

That will cause great waves, and it is by no means a blessing for the country. Of course, if there are many people in the main battle, after the court discussion, the teacher is famous, and I can say loudly at this moment: "Please rest assured, we will definitely follow the postponement!" Helpless, this level is not sure, so I say Sorry for the harsh words. "In life, no matter what your status is, there will always be unsatisfactory things. Only by being good at explaining can you eliminate your troubles. Emperor," the queen mother said earnestly: "You have to think about your responsibilities!" "Yes." The emperor bowed his head and agreed.Hesitant to speak, there was never a definite answer. So the queen mother urged: "What do you think of my words?" "You should obey the instructions of the queen mother. However," the emperor said with difficulty, "reconciliation is also difficult." "How difficult is it?" "Peace is not surrender?" "Who wants you to surrender?" The queen mother said: "No matter how rude Hu Hanxie is, he can't be so arrogant." "Either surrender or humiliation is the same." "Well, I don't understand! How do you say being married is humiliated? If you think that the family is wrong, the family is wrong, and the eldest princess of the Han family is losing face by marrying the Huns, that is not something that happened today." "Yes!" The emperor suddenly thought of a statement, and he became confident: "Zhaojun has already received the title of concubine Ming, how can he be sent out of the Great Wall again? Taking the concubine of the Han Palace as the Chanyu's Yan clan is an insult to the state." The Empress Dowager was taken aback by saying this. "We didn't think about this." She pondered for a while, then suddenly asked: "Emperor, you mean that the reason why you don't want to send Zhaojun out of the fortress is to preserve the dignity of the country, not because you don't want Zhaojun yourself?" "Yes!" The emperor agreed loudly. "Okay!" The queen mother nodded calmly: "I can always figure out a way." The emperor doesn't know what good strategy the queen mother has?After thinking about it again and again, I think that the queen mother will not come up with any good ideas, and Zhaojun can definitely stay!The current plan is just how to appease Hu Hanxie. "It's easy to do anything except cut the land!" He muttered to himself.Immediately, Xuan Shixian and Kuang Heng explained their decision and asked them to plan how to make peace with Hu Hanxie again. Unexpectedly, on the second day, great changes took place in Jianzhang Palace. According to the reports obtained, Wang Zhaojun is no longer in Jianzhang Palace.It was a eunuch who came to report.Because Zhaojun didn't like eunuchs to serve as eunuchs, apart from sweeping the palace once a day, and the heavy work was too much for the maids, Fang Shi summoned the eunuchs to enter, and usually had to wait outside the palace gate.So the eunuch only saw the cage being moved out of the palace, and Zhaojun got into the car with tears in his eyes, but he didn't know anything else. The emperor was naturally anxious, not knowing why Zhaojun moved, where he moved to, and who sent the vehicle to pick him up?Send Zhou Xiang to ask all these doubts, and naturally he will understand them immediately.But the emperor still felt that it would take a lot of trouble to go back and forth, so it is better to go straight and ask in person. "Order to drive Jianzhang Palace!" The emperor ordered: "Hurry up." If it is too fast, it will not be able to gather the followers it should have.Knowing the emperor's state of mind, Zhou Xiang got a safety car, let the emperor sit on it, held the bridle himself, and arrived quickly. Jianzhang Palace was calm as usual, but as soon as he entered the palace gate, he could feel it immediately.Because there was a parrot, which was trained extremely cleverly. Usually when the emperor arrived, he would call out loudly: "Concubine Ming take you!" At this time, there was no sound.And looking up and searching, I can't see Caiyu Zhubeak anymore. It was Xiuchun who came to pick him up.Before she finished saluting, the emperor immediately asked, "Where is Concubine Ming?" "Following Yi's decree, we moved back to Yeting." "Move back to Yeting?" The emperor was even more astonished: "You heard me right? Did you move to Shanglin Garden?" "If you go back to the emperor, it's Ye Ting." "Who passed the decree? Ye Ting Ling?" "No! It's Feng Jieyu." Xiuchun said again, "But afterward, Ye Ting Ling came to take care of her." Why did you send Feng Jieyu to deliver the decree?The emperor was deeply puzzled.But sending Ye Ting instead of Lin Yuan is not necessarily a bad thing.Because this at least shows that the queen mother did not exchange Hanwen back, and still intends to use Zhaojun as Princess Ninghu. "Let me ask you again, what else did Feng Jieyu say?" When asked about this, Xiuchun remembered Feng Jieyu's stern face, and immediately replied: "Except for Chuanyizhi, I didn't say a single word." "Where is Concubine Ming? What do you have to say?" "Except for Shane, there is no other words." "Don't even ask, why did the empress dowager let her move back to Yeting?" "No!" Xiuchun added: "Concubine Ming refuses to ask." "why?" The emperor blurted out this question, and then felt that his words were redundant.Asking that way, it is obvious that moving back to Yeting is a sign of being wronged.With Zhaojun's temperament, he would not ask such a question. Since we couldn't find out why, we had to send someone to investigate.At that time, Zhou Xiang was ordered to go to Yeting immediately, ask what happened, and play back quickly. I don't want Zhou Xiang to return, but there is another report, saying that the queen mother has issued an order: Zhaojun bestows death, and will be buried according to the fierce ceremony of the eldest princess.This is like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and it is impossible to verify it in a hurry.He also didn't dare to wait until he found out and deal with it. The only thing he could do was to send someone to Yeting to pass on the decree: the Queen Mother's decree should be postponed, and he rushed to Cishou Palace to rescue Zhaojun. The Empress Dowager had just summoned the Order of Yeting, and asked about Zhaojun's detour to Yeting, and also asked whether she had ever received the death order from Zhaojun?The answer is: "Just received it, and I am following it." The so-called "complying" means that something must be dealt with, and the main thing is to keep secret and quiet, and it is necessary to avoid causing disturbance.Therefore, they are usually carried out late at night, or drink poison, or hang themselves, it is up to the person to choose.If you can't do it yourself, or if you love life and refuse to obey the order, you have to use a bowstring to hold your throat, which is no different from strangulation. The Empress Dowager understands these customs, and because of this custom, she must summon Ye Tingling and order her to return at noon.That is to say: Zhaojun must be executed before noon. Just when Ye Tingling had just exited from the side gate, the emperor arrived in a hurry. "Queen!" The emperor fell to his knees as soon as he saw her, "Please be merciful!" As soon as the queen mother saw the emperor's arrival, she knew what he was coming for, and she felt very uncomfortable!At this time, he deliberately asked, "What's your favor?" "Please forgive Wang Zhaojun's death." Originally thought that the emperor only knew that Zhao Jun moved back to Yeting, but who knew that he also knew the decree for death!The queen mother was very angry, looked around and asked loudly: "Who is talking too much and told the emperor?" The queen who was accompanying her hurriedly replied, and said firmly: "No one dares to talk too much! The news is definitely not leaked here." "I didn't know until I arrived at Jianzhang Palace." The emperor replied, "Then I heard that Zhaojun had been granted death. I beg your mother to show mercy. Wang Zhaojun is not wrong." It can be said to be indiscriminate in words, but in fact it doesn’t matter if you don’t say the last sentence, it’s even worse if you say it. "She's not wrong, is it my fault?" At this moment, the emperor realized that what he had said was thoughtless, and hurriedly argued: "My son definitely didn't mean that, dare to find an excuse to disobey the queen." "Yes! Mother, please calm down." The queen also helped to intercede: "The emperor definitely didn't mean that." "It doesn't mean that, what do you mean? The matter is very clear, it's either black or white, and Zhaojun was sentenced to death for nothing wrong. Of course, I shouldn't have made such a decree!" "I will never dare to disobey my mother, but Wang Zhaojun is really pitiful." Why didn't the queen mother know that Zhaojun was pitiful, but now, she had to harden her heart and make a one-stop solution, so she replied coldly: "There are many poor people!" Such a situation that dripping water could not get in forced the emperor to ask the queen for help.For the sake of the husband and wife, the queen knew that the queen mother was determined and had already encountered a setback once, so she had no choice but to bite the bullet and make another mess. "The empress dowager please forgive Wang Zhaojun's death—" Before finishing her sentence, the queen mother was furious, and interrupted her with a livid face: "Wait a minute! Why do you say that! Don't you have a lot of grievances, all from Wang Zhaojun? You are too cowardly to do anything." Clean up the palace, come and cry with me, now, I have taken care of it for you, but you are pretending to be a good person there, what do you mean?" This reproach was not light, and the empress was ashamed, ashamed, and wronged, and her voice choked up, "The concubine is guilty of death!" She knelt down: "The empress dowager returned, and the concubine was so grateful that I don't know how to repay it. Know how to say it." "If you don't know how to say it, don't say it!" This is to imply that the queen does not have to ask.The emperor thought that Zhaojun's life was like a gossamer, and he was inexplicably anxious.A word that was hidden deep in my heart and was unwilling to say no matter what, was finally forced out: "Please forgive me!" He said: "As long as Wang Zhaojun is not dead, I can do anything!" The queen mother thought to herself, if she was willing to withdraw her hand earlier, there would be no disturbances?After pondering for a while, I felt that I had to be sure, but I had to ask clearly. "Is it sent outside the Great Wall?" The emperor was heartbroken and couldn't answer for a long time.But it can be seen from the expression, really helpless, only to let go.Seeing this scene, the queen mother really hated Wang Zhaojun a little bit. "Hmph! I just found out today that Wang Zhaojun really had a mole." "Then—" the emperor couldn't help arguing, "That's Mao Yanshou talking nonsense." These words were just like adding fuel to the flames, "How do you know that Mao Yanshou is talking nonsense?" The Queen Mother said with a dark face, "I don't think he was wrong at all. For a while, the restlessness in Liugong was caused by her alone. Now it is simply It’s time to go to war! Let me tell you, my death is for the sake of the state of the Han Dynasty.” The emperor was speechless, the queen saw that the empress dowager was a little active, and thought that the nail had already been hit, so it was better to touch it again.Otherwise, if you don't die for virtue, you will hit the nail in vain. "The empress dowager is worried about the people of the country, and the emperor knows it. I always ask the empress dowager to be merciful and let go of it first. When the concubine goes to persuade the emperor, when it is time for Wang Zhaojun to die, the concubine will definitely ask the empress dowager to make a decree." .” This is quite euphemistic.And the empress standing on the emperor's side inevitably made the empress dowager feel lonely, so she had to take advantage of the situation to close the tent. Furious and helpless, "Okay!" The queen mother picked up the stick that was placed beside the jade throne, and said after a pause: "I don't care anymore, and I can't do it anymore! You must ruin the world of the Han Dynasty! With that said, Huo Di stood up, turned around and left. "Mother queen! Mother queen!" The emperor knelt down and grabbed the queen mother's clothes. The queen grabbed the emperor's clothes again.When he turned to look at her, she winked and smacked her lips.The emperor suddenly realized.Saving people is the most important thing. There is no need to rush to plead guilty in front of the mother. So the emperor let go, and the queen mother left without hesitation.