Since Xun Shaoling returned to normal rule, he has vigorously rectified the dynasty and prepared for the southern expedition, but he is the new monarch in power, and there are still signs of instability in the court.

The other ministers gradually gave up after admonishing him a few times, only Shen Donglai, he resolutely opposed the Southern Expedition, regardless of the suspicions of others, every time the court discussed the Southern Expedition, he had to give Xun Shaoling a few words of advice, every time there was a new reason for the advice, which made Xun Shaoling very annoyed, and asked Elder Tianyuan to plant eyeliner around him to prove that he had different intentions for Beiliang, but he couldn't catch his handle. He really didn't have any other abnormal actions except for openly opposing Xun Shaoling in the court.

Early this morning, Xun Shaoling discussed with the ministers the arrangements for military salaries, grain and grass during the southern expedition, and Shen Donglai spoke again, "Your Majesty, please Rong Chen, this year my Northern Liang has suffered a major drought, the grain has decreased sharply, and many places have been seriously affected, if Your Majesty raises grain for the southern expedition at this time, it will definitely hurt the people's interests and cause public resentment, I hope Your Majesty will think twice and postpone the southern expedition......"

Xun Shaoling was furious, and was just about to open his mouth to rebuke Shen Donglai, when he suddenly heard an angry voice from among the hundred officials, loudly scolding Shen Donglai: "Lord Shen is really ridiculous! Although my Beiliang has suffered from drought this year, the treasury is full, and the grain storage in various places is abundant, and it is more than enough to deal with the disaster. Or does Lord Shen have the intention to provoke the hearts of the ministers and make the ministers cowardly in the southern expedition?"

This upright and awe-inspiring voice came from the Sanpin Ministry of Shangshu Wei Rushen.

Shen Donglai's exhortation for days and days caused Long Yan to be furious, but he respected him as the imperial lieutenant, and his power leaned towards the government and the opposition, and there were no ministers in the court who dared to speak out to refute him.

Wei Rushen's sonorous words made Xun Shaoling feel very pleased, there was finally one person in this court who could impress him, and Xun Shaoling didn't need to be a stalemate with Shen Donglai, he felt very good, very good. He didn't say anything, didn't speak, and watched the two people in the hall arguing.

Shen Donglai was choked by Wei Rushen's angry reprimand, but his momentum did not decrease, and he still went toe-to-toe with Wei Rushen: "...... When Lord Wei made such a statement, he was in fact ill-conceived and careless! Didn't Lord Wei know how much he was concerned about the overall situation? If the two countries were to fight in Beiliang now, how much loss would it be! I was just thinking about the national strength! You actually made outrageous remarks! You made such absurd remarks to deceive the Holy Hearing!

Wei Rushen has always been upright and not good at flattery, but at this time, he embodied this even more, showing his loyalty to the fullest, and completely establishing a noble image that is proud of his ministers: "Lord Shen! The lower officials just want to remind you, don't grow the ambition of others and destroy your own prestige, what is the benefit of you thinking too much? You say that you take the overall situation into account, doesn't Your Majesty, as the king of Northern Liang, not know how to take the overall situation into account? When the court's preparations for the southern expedition were in full swing, Lord Shen had to pour cold water several times, Lord Shen, what is your intention? Are you afraid that my Northern Liang will be disadvantageous or that Nanke will be invaded?

"Lord Wei! you ......"

……

Wei Rushen and Shen Donglai argued in the court, which made the ministers sigh, but Xun Shaoling had a lot of fun, after all, it was rare to see Shen Donglai being confronted by the courtiers. He had always been suspicious of Shen Donglai like Elder Tianyuan, and he could also hate that the court had been controlled by Shen Donglai for a long time, and he was a little glad to see this form now. In the end, it was Xun Shaoling who opened his mouth to persuade them, and he feigned anger and said: "I have my own distinction between loyalty and disloyalty! I just feel that it is really gratifying that there are such upright and good ministers among the hundreds of officials in this court." To fight or not to fight, I have already made a decision, why don't Shen Aiqing save your strength and don't have a war of words with me anymore? I have made up my mind, the southern expedition is urgent, sooner or later I will have troops under the city of Chang'an, Shen Aiqing and watch!"

Nanke, in Guangren Palace, the palace maid Mu Hibiscus entered the inner hall, with a happy face, light steps, walked in front of Concubine Jin, and saluted: "Niangniang, His Royal Highness the Second Prince has come down." ”

Concubine Jin leaned on the leaning, her eyes closed slightly, she took a short rest, she was lazy and tired, her high bun was beautiful, the jade hairpin scratched her head and the golden steps shook straight into the cloud sideburns, although she was over forty years old, her skin was as white as snow and tender as a girl, no wonder she was alone in the harem now, and the decorations were very luxurious. Hearing this, she immediately raised her eyes and sat upright: "Don't let my Yin'er come in quickly!"

As soon as the words fell, before the hibiscus could be transmitted, he heard the hearty and open laughter of the second prince Su Jiayin: "Mother!"

He strode in, tall and tough, beaded crown brocade robe, the prince's nobility was fully revealed, the faint gloomy color between the eyebrows dissipated, he was overjoyed, smiled and stepped forward, before he was about to give a salute, and was supported by Concubine Jin, she said: "Yu'er, my mother seems to be a little different from you today, why are you so happy?"

Jiayin's smile deepened, and motioned for Concubine Jin to retreat, and Concubine Jin said, "You guys go down first, this palace wants to say something considerate to my emperor." ”

"Yes. The palace people bowed and exited the inner sanctum. Jiayin added: "Hibiscus can stay." Mu Hibiscus stopped, looked back at Jiayin, made eye contact with him, and smiled: "Yes." ”

The palace door was closed, Su Jiayin and Concubine Jin sat down, and Mu Hibiscus served tea and waited aside.

Su Jiayin took the tea offered by Mu Hibiscus, took a sip, and said to Concubine Jin: "Mother Concubine, today in the court, my father issued a decree to promote Cao Guangchun and Lord Cao to be the secretary of the military department!"

"Cao Guangchun, your father-in-law Cao Guangchun?"

Su Jiayu smiled and nodded: "Yes, it's him! The queen mother doesn't know, the eldest grandson Qingyun led a group of Wenchen to oppose it many times, and my father insisted on appointing my father-in-law Cao Guangchun as the secretary of the military department, this father and emperor obviously did it on purpose, mother, don't you say this is not gratifying? What is even more pleasing is that I heard that the imperial sister also sent a detailed investigation of my father-in-law through the matter of the Tongtian Altar, but she found nothing! The imperial sister racked her brains to catch him, but she didn't catch it!"

Concubine Jin Guifei ignored her demeanor for a while, covered her mouth and laughed, leaning forward and closing her back, "How do you think there is still today? Zhaoming, Zhaoming, let her and her incompetent brother be proud for so long, it's time to frustrate her!"

The confidant palace maid Mu Hibiscus had fun with them, and stepped forward and said: "Congratulations to Your Highness, congratulations to Niangniang, this is a quick event, but please forgive the slave maid for saying more, even if you are happy, please be more careful, the wall has ears, I am afraid of being listened to by Luo Yunmen......."

Hibiscus's reminder was also reasonable, and Concubine Jin put away her smug smile and returned to her solemnity. Su Jiayin's eyes rolled, fell on Mu Hibiscus's delicate face, and reached out to hold her hand, "It's still Mu Hibiscus who is thoughtful and thoughtful, and I have to be more vigilant in the future." ”

Mu Hibiscus made a shy breakaway, "Your Highness commanded, Mu Hibiscus dare not obey." ”

Su Jiayin let go of her hand and laughed with Concubine Jin: "Sooner or later, I have to ask my mother for this girl Hibiscus, this girl is very wonderful." ”

Concubine Jin smiled skillfully: "You, you, if I give you the hibiscus, I'm afraid you won't come to see your mother for ten days and half a month, right?" ”

In the evening, after Su Jiayin celebrated with Cao Guangchun outside the palace, he returned to his Changming Palace. In the Nanke Imperial Palace, the Yitian Palace is the central axis, and this central axis is pushed from the Yitian Palace to the imperial study, the Tianqi Palace, the sleeping palace of Emperor Nancheng, the Shaohua Palace, the queen's dormitory, and the Zhaoming Palace; Empress Nanke was buried early, and Jiayi was a minor, so she has been living in Shaohua Palace, not with the princes.

Su Jiayin is over twenty-two years old, because Emperor Nancheng has not yet established a prince, and the princes are not allowed to seal the king out of the palace to build a mansion, so he still lives in the palace when he passes by the vacant East Palace Gate at night, he lifts the carriage curtain and looks, after watching for so many years, he only feels that this East Palace is not out of reach tonight.

He smiled lightly at the corner of his lips, was slightly drunk, lowered the curtain, and entered the Changming Palace.

The palace people helped him into the dormitory, waiting for him to rest, he had no sleep, and wanted to write a letter to a minister in the court to win people's hearts. The palace people retreated, the door was still open, and he sat in front of the bookcase and wrote a letter.

Suddenly, a cold wind blew, and the doors of the palace were closed, and he stopped his pen and looked around strangely, and there was no one in the palace except him.

There was silence for a while, and he was about to pick up his pen and continue to write, but he vaguely heard a sound from the bookshelf at the other end of the dormitory, so he stood up, and lightly removed the decorative sword hanging on the wall, and walked gently to the bookshelf.

The veil on the bookshelf shook, and under the bright candle flame, the brocade yarn shone brightly, and his eyes flashed, and at that moment, it seemed that a figure flashed from the veil, and he shouted: "Who!" No one answered, he suspected that he was an assassin, drew his sword and picked open the veil, but saw that there was no one in front of the bookshelf, his eyes fell to the ground from the bookshelves on both sides, and when he looked at it, there was a thin old book on the beautifully illustrated carpet, and he obviously did not remember that he had such a book.

Su Jiayin hooked up the book with a long sword, and saw clearly that the word "account book" was written on the cover of the book, he was even more suspicious, and inexplicably opened it to look at it, and after reading it carefully, he understood that this was a book that recorded all the silver taels spent by the Ministry of Industry on this project when the Tongtian Altar was built five years ago, and the more he looked back, the more shocked he became, what kind of account book was this? This was obviously a criminal evidence of his father-in-law Cao Guangchun's embezzlement of huge amounts of public funds! The number on it was one by one, and it was not enough to pay it back even if Cao Guangchun died ten times! Before marrying Cao Guangchun, he also received a lot of benefits from Cao Guangchun, so it seems that those benefits also came from the dirty silver back then!

His face turned pale, as if he was being put to the throat with a sword, he gasped a few times, and held the account book tightly in his hand, and he eagerly searched every corner of the inner hall of the dormitory, but there was no one to be seen, and he intended to destroy the account book first, and walked out of the inner curtain quickly, to find the candle.

Su Jiayin took off the lampshade of a palace lamp in a panic, and was about to set the candle fire to burn the account book, but accidentally let the wax oil burn it, and with a shake of his hand, the account book fell to the ground.

"Humph!"

A slightly jealous sneer came from behind, Su Jiayin turned around suddenly, and he looked panicked and frightened, and saw that a woman dressed as a palace maid was sitting in the corner of his bookcase, propped up on the bookcase with one hand, and holding the letter he had just written in the other, with a cold face, thin lips and a light smile, a pair of phoenix eyes flashed, and a little cinnabar mole added brightness between the willow eyebrows, she looked at him playfully and mockingly, and her sharp gaze seemed to have seen through him.

"Who are you!, how dare you trespass into the prince's bedchamber!," he asked aloud.

She was not surprised, took his letter in her hand and played with it, her eyebrows and eyes were charming, and she made a boo gesture: "Be quiet, His Royal Highness the Second Prince." Isn't it just an account book? It scares you to the point that your soul is scattered?

"You got this account book?" asked Su Jiayin.

She said, "Yes, but it took a lot of hard work to get it." ”

Su Jiayin glared at her angrily: "Then do you want to use this to threaten this prince, or do you want to exchange something?"

She just laughed and didn't say anything, which annoyed him. Su Jiayin secretly thought to himself, instead of being threatened by her, it would be better to kill her mouth first, and then destroy the account book, wouldn't it be done? So he immediately became murderous, picked up the sword again in an instant, and stabbed at her: "You slut!"

She dealt with it indifferently, her head was slightly tilted to avoid the sword he stabbed, he swung the sword from the side to her neck, she turned around, and jumped off the book case lightly, the fierceness in his eyes was extreme, and the long sword stabbed at her again, only to her heart, but she did not retreat to dodge, but stopped in place and stabbed by him, and then when his sword was close to her, she stretched out her slender jade fingers and quickly clamped the sword body to stop the sword immediately, who would have thought that she had so much strength in her slender body, so that he could not stab again.

She kept looking him in the eye, and in a stalemate, she spoke, "Storage." I want a storage space, but I don't want to exchange it with you, but I want to send you to the storage space. ”

He was even more shocked, stunned, his wrist stiffened, she smiled lightly, her fingers clamped a little, and when she folded, the cold long sword between them was broken by her in an instant, and it was not a waste of effort at all.

Su Jiayin was a little unsteady and asked, "What? What do you mean?"

She said: "I didn't want to threaten you with that account book, on the contrary, I helped you detain this account book so that it didn't fall into the hands of Princess Zhaoming, the head of Luoyun Gate." I won't harm you, but I will help you fight for the throne, as long as the two of us join forces, we will definitely be able to defeat your imperial sister Princess Zhaoming and destroy Luoyunmen!"

He had never dared to say such an ambitious word, but the woman came straight to him and told him about it, and he looked at her with wide eyes, and said in disbelief, "Why should I make an alliance with you?"

"That's it. She took out a dragon-patterned jade pendant from the belt around her waist and held it up in front of him.

"Father's double dragon jade pendant, how can you have it?" Su Jiayin snatched it and looked at it in his hand.

"Because he's also our ally," she said. ”

"What? You mean ......"

"Yes. He wants to make you a reserve. ”

This was simply the biggest surprise in his life, like a spring thunder struck in front of him: "Really, my father really wants to set me up?"

"The third prince is not intellectually talented, the fourth prince is sick, and the fifth prince is young, in fact, His Majesty has always favored you, the second prince, but because of Princess Zhaoming and Luo Yunmen, I can't set you up immediately. So, in the future, as long as we work together to deal with them and remove these obstacles, the storage space will be yours after all. ”

He couldn't help laughing, clenched the jade pendant in his hand, and looked directly at her, "What about you? Who are you?"

She smiled shallowly, her eyes glazed, "Qin Fengge." ”

"Qin Fengge, is this your name, but what about your identity, who are you, and why are you doing all this?" he asked.

"I am the palace maid of Zhaoming Palace, I am the meticulous work of Luoyunmen, and I am also a person who has the same goal as you. Just remember that, don't ask anything else. Qin Fengge said.

He said: "Okay, since my father trusts you, I will trust you too!" Since she is not an ordinary woman, he can't take it lightly, so he pretends to apologize and bows his hand: "Jiayin has just offended a lot, don't blame the girl." In the future, I will need a lot of advice from the girl. ”

She accepted it gladly, stood proudly in front of him, and returned the salute without saying anything else.

Qin Fengge walked a few steps, raised a smaller candle lamp, stopped in front of the account book, and as soon as he let go of his hand, the candle light fell on the account book and burned with the account book.

They stood side by side, their heads held high, staring at the burning scarlet flame......