Chapter 2 second quarter

Jieyu Xu Hui was inconvenient to attack Meiniang's language arrow, and she read from Meiniang's smile something beyond jealousy, which made Xu Hui feel uneasy, and her pale face became even paler. No longer associate with talented Wu Zhao.Of course, this is just a small episode that happened between the palace people.Taizong's failed campaign against Goguryeo seems to have been the cause of his sharp decline in health.Emperor Taizong suffered from red dysentery, and his condition was good and bad. The imperial doctors suggested that the emperor move to Cuiwei Palace on Zhongnan Mountain. They believed that the fresh air and sunshine on the mountain would be beneficial to the emperor's fatigue.

Meiniang also moved from the imperial city to Cuiwei Palace with the mighty people serving the emperor. She remembered the gloomy and desperate mood that day. The chariot driving to Zhongnan Mountain seemed to her full of funeral atmosphere. Emperor Taizong's good times were undoubtedly not long. Well, once the emperor passed away, as a favored court lady, she would be expelled from the palace, guarding the spirit of the emperor in the nunnery, and end the rest of her life under the cold lamp and green smoke?Meiniang shuddered at the thought of the slim prospect.The scorching sun of early summer shines on the trees and valleys of Zhongnan Mountain. Variegated wild flowers spread along the mountain road to the distance. At that time, she looked back at the red walls and emerald eaves of the Taiji Palace at the foot of the mountain, and at the Yeting Courtyard where she had lived for many years. Maybe she would never return to that place.At that time, the fierce East Palace battle between Prince Chengqian and Wei Wangtai had ended in a loss for both sides, and Taizong made Jin Wangzhi the prince.This is a court event well known to women and children during the Zhenguan period. It corresponds to the folk proverb that the snipe and the clam compete for the fisherman's profit. Li Zhi, a famous tragic figure in the Tang clan, stepped onto a dark historical stage as the prince.Meiniang first met Prince Zhizhi at the side of the polo field. At that time, Prince Zhizhi was a frail young King Jin.Polo matches played by court ladies and eunuchs who are good at riding have always been a favorite pastime for princes and nobles.The court lady golfer in white clothes and trousers is eye-catching. People don't know where her superb riding skills and skillful ball skills come from.The sound of horseshoes, the sound of hitting the ball and the applause of the spectators made Wu Cairen's young and beautiful face radiant, and the eyes of the young King Jin followed Meiniang all the time.Meiniang remembered that Jin Wangzhi took away the wooden ball when she rode her horse to chase the ball. Jin Wangzhi had a happy and pure smile and caught my ball. He stretched out his hand and just held the wooden ball tightly in his hand.

Wu Cairen held the wooden ball thrown by Jin Wangzhi, and the mystery of a generation of evil fate was dormant in that black wooden ball from the very beginning.Later, when they met again in Cuiwei Palace, the topic still revolved around polo. Prince Zhi pointed to Wu Cairen and said, I know you, your polo skills are unmatched, and you actually caught my empty ball that day , Wu Cairen's cheeks were flushed, and he knelt down and answered, it's not because the slaves are skilled at the game, but because His Royal Highness dare not let go of the ball.Imperial doctors gathered in Cuiwei Palace, and the air was filled with the strange and unpleasant smell of decocting medicines. In the Fufeng Hall of the emperor's bedroom, benzoin tablets tributed by Persia covered the stench from the emperor's body.The god of death has approached the generation of heroes on the sick bed, and many court ladies behind the curtains in front of the steps feel sad when they think of their fate like abandoning their shoes after the death of the emperor.Prince Zhi stayed by Taizong's sickbed all day long, and his loyalty and filial piety was a fact in the eyes of the court ladies.The melancholy eyes of the maids all focused on the future emperor, watching him feed the sick Taizong, wipe his sweat, and even use his mouth to suck the phlegm that slipped from Taizong's throat. He wanted to win the favor of Prince Zhi, and hoped to get a life-saving straw from him, but Prince Zhi was so sad before his father's sick bed that he turned a blind eye to the beauties in Fufeng Palace.No one knows that Wu Cairen has gone one step ahead, no one can imagine that Prince Zhi's tenderness and leisure have been squandered by Wu Cairen in the toilet, it is like the fleeting flowering of epiphyllum but it is breathtaking.Court love is nothing more than a lock and a key. If Prince Zhi is the lock, Wu Cairen is the key.

Just like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Empress Wei in the past, Prince Zhi and Wu Cairen had their first taste of cloud and rain in the toilet overflowing with musk and light smoke.The young and tender Prince Zhi couldn't resist Wu Cairen's red lips and jade hands, and the fiery lust was in full swing in the fiery way of sex. It made Prince Zhi forget his father and family relationships on the sick bed. He marveled at Wu Cairen's so easy and quick Let him get the joy of being out of his body.Wu Cairen knelt in front of Prince Zhi's knees, and the silk and gold basin Wu Cairen prepared for the Prince to wash his hands was placed on the ground, but there was not a drop of water in the basin.

Since then, Prince Zhi has never forgotten the talented Wu Zhao. In May of the 23rd year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong, who was dying in Cuiwei Palace, summoned his elders, Sun Wuji and Chu Suiliang, to the couch to leave an edict to Tuogu. The crows that had been noisy for half a month in the sky outside the palace suddenly fell silent, and then the crows flew away. The terrified cries of the imperial doctors sounded in the Palace of Wind, and the emperor died.Mei Niang was holding a pot of tea, the mourning cry hit her hand like thunder and lightning, and the copper pot fell to the ground with a thud.In Cuiwei Palace, Meiniang was the first court lady to cry bitterly, and then the cries of the court ladies rang out one after another, completely covering the cries of the men beside Taizong's spiritual bed.No one stopped the wailing voices of the maids using the topic, and Hanfeng Palace was in a hurry, and the ladies just could vent all their sorrow and resentment to their heart's content, for every kind of dark remaining life, for every unfulfilled wish, for every Love or hate for the dead.With tears in her eyes, Meiniang did not forget to look at Prince Zhi, who was so sad that he almost fainted, the imperial doctors applied a light green concoction on his forehead, Meiniang saw several eunuchs half-supporting him Prince Zhi was walking towards the side hall, Prince Zhi was pale and weak, his eyes glanced at Meiniang but only gave an empty glance, which disappointed Meiniang, she didn't expect to make eye contact with Prince Zhi in this situation, but she suddenly realized The love affair in the palace may become a one-night dream, and the new emperor who is about to ascend the throne may soon forget her.On the morning of the second day after Taizong's death, the weather changed from cloudy to sunny, and the magnificent cavalry team of hussars, led by Prince Zhizhi, left Zhongnan Mountain to escort the coffin of the emperor back to Chang'an.Mei Niang and a group of maids stood in the gazebo and watched the team go away. The black lacquered and gilded coffin had turned into a black spot, and the thin figure of Prince Zhi was also lost in the yellow smoke. Mother, she has no chance to say a word with the new emperor to add love.At the foot of the mountain there are more than ten simple bare carriages, those carriages will send the maids in Cuiwei Palace to Yeting in the imperial city or the nunnery in Chang'an respectively.The ones who returned to Ye Ting Palace were those court ladies who had never been so lucky, and those court ladies who had been carried by eunuchs to the emperor's dragon bed cried together in the gazebo. They already knew that the carriage would take them to Ganye Temple for the rest of their lives.Lady Cai Liu suddenly went mad when she was walking towards the carriage. Mei Niang saw her suddenly drop the package in her hand and run wildly into the valley. The palace officials immediately rode away.The scene of the palace officials chasing the lady Liu in the woods made all the palace ladies stand and stare. Mei Niang saw the palace officials' square horse formation easily surrounded the crazy palace lady, and Liu's desperate cry was heart-piercing. Cracking the gallbladder, I will not go to the nunnery, let me go home.The rope loops of the palace officials also easily caught Liu Shi's neck, and Liu's hand pulled the rope loop around her neck, her cry was still sharp and desolate, the emperor only favored me once, I will not go to the nunnery, I want to go home.

Mei Niang couldn't imagine how the slender picking girl Liu Shi broke the rope around her neck, she just saw Liu Shi crawling out from under the horses of the palace officials amidst the whipping of the palace officials, and then she Seeing Mrs. Liu swooping towards the stele like a frightened deer, what happened was caught off guard. Meiniang saw Mrs. Liu's blood splashing like red water splashing on the stele, reflecting the gloomy sky of Zhongnan Mountain red. If you walk out from the mountain gate of Ganye Temple, you will be able to come to Zhuquemen Street in the downtown area of ​​Chang'an in a short while. You can hear the morning bell and evening drum of the nunnery, and the nuns from the emperor's harem accompanied the ghost of the late emperor in the sound of chanting.

However, the nuns of Ganye Temple can never walk out of the two black mountain gates, and passers-by outside the mountain gates cannot see the elegant demeanor of the old court ladies with their own eyes.When the bell of the new emperor Li Zhi ascended the throne rang loudly in the imperial city, the dilapidated houses of Ganye Temple also trembled. Meiniang happened to be shaved that day, and her first black hair fell to the ground as soon as the bell rang. Her dry eyes opened in response, flashing a brilliance like waking up from a dream.Why ring the bell?She asked the old nun holding a razor behind her.The new emperor is enthroned, the old nun said, it was the bell of the enthronement ceremony.Mei Niang said that I was going to listen to the bell, and she shook off the old nun's hand and ran towards the courtyard, her half-shaved black hair hanging down her white cassock.Mei Niang didn't hear the abbot Lao Ni's angry scolding behind her, she grabbed her long hair that was about to be broken with one hand, and ran into the courtyard with the oversized cassock in the other, and saw many former palace people gathered there, they were silent Listening to the bell of the imperial city with different expressions.Mei Niang looked up at the sky separated by a high wall. The sky was clear and bright without a single cloud. It was a good day for the ceremony of the emperor, but she couldn't see the big clocks, she couldn't see the appearance of the new emperor's dragon crown. The last echo of the sound disappeared under the sunny day, and Meiniang covered her face with her hands and let out a miserable cry. The old friends in the palace were astonished by Meiniang's crying, and they surrounded her and warned, why did they cry on the day of the ceremony? ?Aren't you afraid that the abbot will report you back to the palace and give you a death penalty?Mei Niang was still sobbing, she said, what is death and what is life, here are all maidservants, dead and alive are the same.The quiet time in the nunnery destroyed the beautiful faces of the old court ladies with destructive power. They met every day in front of the altar, and found that their faces were aging like autumn leaves day by day. There is no shadow, the only thing left on the top of the naked head is the desire for food and clothing and the memories of the harem that seem to have passed away.The abbot, the old nun, took away every bronze mirror in the nunnery, but in fact, the owner of the mirror has nothing to do with it.The nuns usually share the same bed in pairs, and the moaning or frolicking at night in the meditation room becomes the only joy of life in Ganye Temple.Someone once wanted to get into Meiniang's quilt, but the other party was kicked down by Meiniang.Mei Niang pushed the young nun out of the room, she said, I hate your tricks, it's not clean.The nun retorted, "You think you are clean, and you will go to the womb of heaven if you are clean. Didn't you get kicked to the nunnery after years of obsequiousness?"That time Meiniang was so angry, she lowered her head and bumped into the other person's face while she was talking. If the emperor doesn't want me, I won't be able to ruin it for you. Meiniang bumped the nun against the door frame. She took a hard bite on the shoulder.The screams of the nuns alarmed the entire nunnery. Many nuns opened the windows and looked in this direction. They saw that Mei Niang's face was radiating a chill of grief and anger under the moonlight. The door bolt in her hand seemed to welcome everyone. violations.Wu Cairen is going crazy.The old court ladies whispered, based on their understanding of Wu Cairen, they believed that arrogant and conceited palace men were the easiest to go crazy, and Wu Cairen should be an example.From then on, no one dared to climb to Mei Niang's meditation bed, but no one talked to Meiniang anymore. The nuns in Ganye Temple isolated Meiniang very tacitly.The rosewood ball is still with her.

Now the lonely wooden ball game has changed its meaning, and the white circles drawn by Meiniang on the ground mean madness, death and great luck respectively.It turned out that there was a white circle with new words written in it, but she erased it. This white circle had lost the meaning of betting to her. Mei Niang calmly narrowed the circle of great fortune again and again, she realized that it was almost a miracle, a kind of dream, she could not control the trembling every time she rolled the wooden ball, she hoped that the wooden ball would fall in the smallest white circle, But the wooden ball is more thrown into the white circle of madness and death, Mei Niang said, I don't want to die, and I won't be crazy.With dreamlike emotion she rolled the wooden ball, but it stopped outside the white circle, mocking its owner like an indifferent elf.Mei Niang finally calmed down. She wiped the wooden ball with her skirt and held it in her palm. She stood by the window and listened to the wind, which passed by the juniper branches outside the window.The bang of the watchman telling the time outside the high wall brings a breath of the world, but the Tai Chi Palace seems to float to the other side of the world.Meiniang felt sad, she whimpered to her beloved red sandalwood ball, why didn't you listen to me?I'm just begging the emperor to take me back to the palace.Mother Yang came to visit Meiniang at Ganye Temple. According to the regulations of the nunnery, she could only hand in family letters and food through the movable window on the door. He took off the gold bracelet but still didn't open the door, just made an exception to let Meiniang talk to his mother.

But the mother and daughter just narrated their separation through the mountain gate by crying, and the nun who guarded the gate also had red eyes, but she did not forget to warn Mei Niang, telling you not to say anything, and go back to your meditation room if you don't say anything.Mother Yang finally spoke first, and her words baffled the nun guarding the door. Yang cried outside the door and said, I shouldn't believe Yuan Tiangang's nonsense, it is Yuan Tiangang's nonsense that hurt you.Meiniang inside the door stopped crying, and after a short moment of silence, Meiniang said to her mother outside the door, don't worry, go back, I'm not dead yet, as long as I live, I can repay your kindness of nurturing.

Opening mother's package, there was a letter from home and a package of pastries.The family letter said that her elder sister was married, her younger sister contracted smallpox and died, and her half-brothers spoke ill of her mother every day.After reading the letter, Meiniang unwrapped the paper bag outside the pastry. It was the sour plum cake that she never tired of eating when she was a child, but Meiniang didn't want to eat it at all. , Year after year, she has become a twenty-five-year-old late beauty. The world later believed that Emperor Gaozong heard Wu Zhao's cry in the nunnery, and Emperor Gaozong followed the sound, so he got into the soft black net that Wu Zhao had been weaving for ten years.The abbot of Ganye Temple remembered that Emperor Gaozong came in disguise on the second anniversary of the late emperor's death.Gaozong brought a whole load of luxurious gifts to the late emperor's maidservants, but the gift to Wu Zhao was a secret long talk in the living room.The abbot nun was puzzled by the situation, she only remembered that Wu Zhao suddenly burst into a beautiful and amazing face that day, her eyes were full of autumn water, her face was like a spring peach, and the tear stains on her cheeks added to her a kind of sad but not complaining charm.The envoy in yellow, Duguji, often sneaked into Ganye Temple from then on, and opened the mountain gate with the cooperation of the abbot and nun. The visitor in the dark night was none other than the holy Emperor Gaozong. .On a dark and windy night of one month, a chariot from Tai Chi Palace picked up Wu Zhao, a nun from Ganye Temple.The sleeping nuns could vaguely hear the wheels rattling in the middle of the night, unaware of the spectacle of a miracle.The old nun, the abbot, was twirling the Buddhist beads quickly in the dark courtyard. She believed that if the emperor was deceived by a woman, the woman must have fairy magic.

Prince Hiroshi I am Li Hong, and people's memories of me have been indifferent year after year. The "Yaoshan Jade Color" I wrote when I was young is now dusty and moldy in the bookcase of Hebi Palace, and there are still people in the neighborhood wine shops in Chang'an and Luoyang. I was talking about the strange night banquet of the Hebi Palace, but I know that not many people remember me anymore. For many years, those who have been curious about the secrets of the palace are still guessing every mysterious and terrifying detail of my mother Wu Zetian's life, guessing about my mother How Wu Zhao made her own son die in a night banquet in Hebi Palace without showing any trace. That is also a miracle, the creator of a miracle needs to pass through countless mysterious gates, and my mother Wu Zhao, the only woman who has become a queen in history, can pass through every mysterious gate.Legend has it that I was the product of a secret court incest. It is said that my life was conceived on the Zen bed of Ganye Temple in the west of Chang'an City.Such records cannot be consulted in the historical records I have come into contact with, but it is like a black label attached to my body. It makes my body weak and weak year after year. It showed a gloomy style, which was incompatible with the prince's joy, and I knew it was a natural disease.There is a palace official named Duguji, who knows the ins and outs of the story of Ganye Temple very well. I once sent people to look for him in private, but later I heard that Duguji died violently in the Yu River outside the palace wall very early. I was two years old at that time, maybe I hadn't even been born yet, actually I knew that even if I faced that man named Duguji one day, I would not be able to hear anything from his mouth. I am Tai Zihong, but I would not hear anything It's like closing your eyes tightly to appreciate the mystery of darkness, but when you open your eyes wide, you always see red or yellow candlelight. I always see that black tag on me. I saw a hot summer afternoon in the second year of Yonghui, the gongs and drums in Chang'an City in honor of Emperor Taizong suddenly stopped, and cigarettes were still lingering inside and outside the palace walls. The branches and leaves did not cover the hot afternoon sun, and the green gauze tent concealed the tired but lustful appearance of the emperor.His father disguised himself as a wealthy businessman and went to Ganye Temple to visit the old courtiers in the Taizong era. In the living room full of gold, silver, and silk, he saw those unnamed palace men left by the previous emperor. Clothes exaggerate their sorrow and despair.Among this group of weird nuns, Cairen Wuzhao was like a lotus flower emerging from water. Her beauty and tranquility shocked the father's heart. The father's eyes were no longer half awake and half asleep. Shining brilliantly in the nunnery where the morning bells and twilight drums, the woman wrapped in a white cloth did not apply makeup, her phoenix eyes and wide mouth condensed an expression of half arrogance and half charming, and the plump and mature carcass in the black clothes was clearly confiding to her father. What, in the formal and solemn Ganye Temple, the father recognized Cairen Wuzhao's unique and bold language, she was evoking his memory, she was reminding him of his promise, so the father vaguely remembered that in the palace of the late emperor Taizong They had exchanged eye contact, and he had had short, frantic sex with this woman while he was on the toilet.There was already tenderness in the father's eyes. As an extremely intelligent servant, Duguji can make quick and accurate judgments on the emperor's every move.He seemed to have a premonition that the nun in the Ganye Temple would accompany the monarch's dragon bed in the future. It is said that Duguji was secretly running between the palace and the Ganye Temple, opening up a way for the super-ethical personal relationship between the father and the mother. door.Dugu and later drowned. I said that it was a mystery. Of course, I am concerned not only with the answer, but what is even more confusing is the people who participated in the creation of this mystery, my father, my mother, why did they My life was conceived on the Zen bed of the nunnery?I am full of curiosity about all the history of the Li family, and I have made a secret and fair evaluation of every ancestor and grandparent in my heart.I think my great-grandfather Gaozu Li Yuan was just a mediocre person with good luck. The great Tang clan left behind countless disasters; besides my father, the Li family’s country was destroyed in his hands. His weak character and ignorant mind have become the laughing stock of many philosophers.Before the famous Hebi Palace Banquet, I had already foreseen the fatal lesion in my family, which came from my mother Wu Zhao. In my short life, she was a dark cloud over my head. I foresaw her death The disaster was powerless to resist, and the disaster fell on me first. As the world knows, I died at the night banquet of Hebi Palace, and I was Prince Hong who was poisoned to death by Empress Zetian Wu. My mother Wu Zhao returned to the imperial palace in AD 654. As the characteristics of Taizong’s deceased, the black cassock has been thrown in the grass of Ganye Temple, and the top of her shaved head has grown black hair. She is wearing an ingenious one. The flower hat came to the harem, and its beautiful and unique charm made all the concubines look sideways.Everyone in the palace knew that Wu Cairen's return to the palace was due to a battle between the Queen and Concubine Xiao Shu.At that time, Concubine Xiao Shu, who had one son and two daughters, was deeply loved by her father. After hearing about the affair between her father and Wu Cairen, the queen, who was tortured by jealousy, spared no effort to bring Wu Cairen into the palace. It is hoped that the emperor's favor on Concubine Xiao Shu will be separated by a martial artist.Queen Wang certainly didn't expect that her painstaking efforts would lead to a worse ending.My mother Wu Zhao re-entered the harem and was named Zhaoyi.Twenty-seven-year-old Wu Zhaoyi left a very good impression on the palace people. Her words were humble, her behavior was humble, and she hid superhuman wisdom and strategy behind a gentle smile.The first person Wu Zhaoyi attached to when she first entered the harem was Queen Wang, who took the lead in paying her respects to Queen Wang almost every day. The deliberate flattery in Wu Zhaoyi was like flowing water. Plus. It was too late for Queen Wang to realize that Wu Zhaoyi's seductiveness towards her father was stronger than Concubine Xiao Shu's.Wu Zhaoyi silently took the place of Concubine Xiao Shu in the father's heart. This abandoned wife from the nunnery of the late emperor has firmly bound the father's favored hand.Queen Wang lamented her credulity and missteps. She wanted to join forces with Concubine Xiao Shu, who was also neglected, to reject Wu Zhaoyi, but her father's infatuated love for Wu Zhaoyi was already indestructible.I can imagine the famous battle for the favor of the concubine. At that time, I was just a toddler. It is said that my mother often took me for a walk in the garden of the harem. The stern, irresistible voice, get up, go, go, that voice has grown up with me in its menace and dignity.In addition to Princess Taiping, who was later doted on, I also had a younger sister, but she died in infancy.Her death is also a mystery in the palace.It is generally believed by the palace people that the young life of the barren Wang and Empress Yijin was strangled, but no one can provide conclusive evidence.Another theory about this matter is that Wu Zhaoyi personally killed her daughter to frame the queen. I believe the latter statement more.In fact, before the Hebi Palace banquet took place, I already believed that my mother could bet on her dream of power with anyone and anything, including me, my brothers and sisters, and all her blood relatives and flesh and blood.My father believed that it was the queen who killed his beloved baby girl, which was the initial motivation for my father to depose the queen in the future.My mother held an effective bargaining chip in the mournful cry.Now it seems that this is how my father began to get into my mother's long giant trap. It is said that my father and my mother soon brought my mother to the house of Changsun Wuji, an important official of the court, to imply the re-establishment of the queen. Changsun Wuji was my uncle and grandfather. Be deaf and dumb on the topic.Changsun Wuji's obstruction delayed my mother's dream of becoming a concubine for several months, but later it also brought disaster to myself. This is of course another story.Some other court officials, such as Xu Jingzong, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Li Yifu, a member of Zhongshushe, seemed to have foreseen Wu Zhaoyi's brilliant future and advocated making Wu Zhaoyi abolished king. Their bet turned out to be right, and their official careers almost Ups and downs with twists and turns, this is of course another story.