This scream of the Yaoxiang County Lord also startled Song Shenzong. The eunuchs and guards who followed thought there were assassins or something, and they were so frightened that they hurriedly looked around, but they didn't notice anything unusual.

They didn't notice the rat on the rockery until Lord Yaoxiang screamed and pointed in the direction of the rockery. Everyone looked over, and then they saw that the mouse was lying on a rock on the rockery, staring at them.

Although the Imperial City was heavily guarded, there was nothing to stop the entry of this small creature that could make holes. There are also many methods of catching rats in the palace, but they can never be caught. Now that they are coming out in front of the emperor, they are still so big, and these eunuchs are all panicked. If the emperor was shocked, what should it be, and immediately two eunuchs picked up the stones on the ground and threw them at the mouse.

The first stone missed, but the other hit the tail of the mouse, squeaking the mouse, spun around, rolled down the rockery, and landed on the grass. The belly was turned upwards, and the four little feet kept dancing, squeaking but not getting up.

Immediately, two little eunuchs pulled out two fist-sized stones from the corridor and smashed them on the rat, instantly smashing the rat into a blur of flesh and blood, and killing him on the spot.

A little eunuch had the audacity to grab the rat's tail and throw it far into the grass, and the leading eunuch was very unhappy, and said angrily: "Stupid, what should you do if you throw him here and it stinks? Hurry, hurry." Take it and find a place to bury it, don't defile the inner courtyard of the palace. ”

The little eunuch suddenly came to his senses, and with a red face, he went to the grass again to find the dead vole, and trotted away with his tail.

Song Shenzong frowned, patted the county lord of Yaoxiang, who was still trembling with fear on his chariot, and said, "Okay, it's just a mouse, what's so scary." ”

"The rat is so big, it's not afraid of people, it scares me to death. ”

Song Shenzong also hated this animal, and comforted his niece and said, "It's okay, it's difficult to see voles in the inner courtyard of our palace." ”

Lord Yaoxiang raised his head and said, "I heard that there are a lot of voles found in the courtyard of the imperial grandmother, all of them are very big, and they are all big and scary. After being beaten to death by the eunuchs, they were already loaded with a basket. ”

Song Shenzong couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, frowned, turned his head and asked Gonggong Long, the personal eunuch beside him: "Is there such a thing?"

Gonggong Long had actually heard about it, but he was afraid that the emperor would be worried about this matter, so he hurriedly smiled and shook his head and said, "This ...... The minions hadn't heard of it, but it must have been the people below who were exaggerating. It's hard to see voles in the inner courtyard of our palace, so how could they run out of a basket. It can be seen that it is some exaggeration, and the emperor does not have to worry about it. ”

Song Shenzong said: "If these voles fall elsewhere, but in the courtyard of the Queen Mother's room, it is not an ordinary thing. You hurry up and ask people to carefully inspect the yard of the Queen Mother, see where these voles come from, and plug all the rat holes that should be blocked. If there are still surviving vole nests, they will be eradicated together, so as not to leave trouble, so as not to scare the Queen Mother. ”

Gonggong Long hurriedly bowed down and agreed.

Song Shenzong's sedan chair entered the courtyard of his dormitory, and he saw three children in the courtyard, holding branches on the edge of a large water tank almost as tall as theirs.

The eldest of these three children is called Zhao Xu, and he is the sixth son of Song Shenzong. The other one, one and a half and a small one, Zhao Price and Zhao Kui, respectively, were his seventh and eighth sons.

Song Shenzong gave birth to five sons in front of him, all of whom died young. That's why he took special care of his three sons. Especially the sixth son Zhao Xu, who is deeply loved by the Empress Dowager Gao. He was always said to be smart and clever, just like his father. Although Song Shenzong didn't think that his mother had any basis for saying this, the elders loved their children, and sometimes there was no reason.

Although Song Shenzong also likes his sixth son, he actually spent a lot of effort on the next few children. These children have also gradually grown older in recent years, and they are already alive and kicking. He didn't know what they were doing around the tank, but it was enough to surprise him. Although this big water tank is almost as high as them, it is reasonable to say that it is unlikely to fall into it, and there are palace maids and eunuchs watching next to him, but after all, he has too many children who have died young, and he is always worried in his heart.

Zhao Xu was the oldest and reacted the fastest, and as soon as he heard his father's voice, he quickly threw the branch in his hand into the water tank, and then turned around and put his hand behind his back. Shaking his head, he said, "Nothing......?" Father, you're back. ”

After hearing what his brother said, the two little ones quickly turned around. But he didn't throw away the small branch in his hand, but just turned his back behind him, looking at his father a little timidly, and didn't know how to say hello.

Song Shenzong walked to the water tank, looked inside, and suddenly his scalp was numb. I saw several small rats in the water tank, splashing up and down in the water. Some have drifted motionless, apparently dead. Others were still swimming hard, their eyes the size of green beans purring. But there was no strength left, and it seemed that it could sink into the water at any moment.

Song Shenzong did not scold his son, but turned his head to look at the few eunuchs and palace maids who followed, and said sharply: "What's the matter?"

An old eunuch stubbornly stepped forward and bowed down and said, "Back to the official's house, I found some voles in the garden today. These voles are very large, and we wanted to kill them and bury them when we caught them. Unexpectedly, the three little princes saw it, and they forced us to throw it into the water, and they poked it with branches to play. The minions didn't dare to disobey, so they put it in the water tank, and it shouldn't be a big deal to watch from the side anyway. ”

Song Shenzong pointed at his head and shouted angrily: "What do you mean that there is no big problem? Let a few princes play with such a dirty vole in front of such a deep water tank, you actually think that there is no big problem!"

The eunuchs and palace maids were so frightened that they knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing to confess.

Song Shenzong took a deep breath, and then suppressed the anger in his heart and asked, "Did you find a vole in the garden?"

One of the eunuchs said, "Yes, a few were found, but not many." were all caught and killed by the minions, and the most found was the yard of the queen mother, saying that it was a basket and picked out. One is bigger than the other, and the fists are scared to death. ”

Song Shenzong frowned, he thought that it was only found in the courtyard of the Queen Mother, but he didn't expect that these disgusting guys were also found in their courtyard, he was angry and said angrily: "What the hell is going on? Why are there so many voles running out of the palace, have you checked it?"

A eunuch bowed down and said, "The minions have checked, but they don't know where they came from." We searched the whole yard and found a few rat holes, which had been sealed with stones and earth. ”

A palace maid cringed and said, "I have seen rats in the courtyard in the past, but the rats will run away when they see people, let alone come out." But these big rats found this time are swaggering and shivering, and people don't run when they come, it's really strange. ”

The other eunuchs and palace maids quietly saw that the emperor was very concerned about this palace maid's statement, and they were very good at observing words and feelings, and immediately echoed it. Some said that they found dead voles on their pillows, and some said that the voles had crawled into the bowl.

Song Shenzong became more and more irritable when he heard this, and waved his hand and said, "Okay, immediately organize people to clean all the places in the inner courtyard of the palace." When they saw the voles, they were all killed, buried and buried, or they were carried out of the imperial city from the palace in baskets and burned by them. ”

Gonggong Long and the kneeling eunuchs and palace maids all agreed in unison.

The continuous discovery of voles in the palace made Song Shenzong really a little haggard. If he even had to ask him about catching voles in person, then he, the emperor, would be too sloppy, so he flicked the sleeves of his robe impatiently and turned around and got into the sedan chair.

Looking back at his sons standing respectfully, Song Shenzong couldn't help but feel soft in his heart. These days, he has been taking care of all kinds of affairs, especially flood control and disaster relief, which takes up a lot of his time and has almost no time to spend with his children. The three children were not as kind as they used to be, which made him feel a little sad. So he beckoned the three children to come, but the three children stood with their hands down and did not see them. Song Shenzong couldn't bear it anymore, so he shouted, "Xu'er, you three come here." ”

After Zhao Xu heard his father's words, he stabbed the two younger brothers who were still there, and walked quickly to his father's side, looking at him with two small eyes. Song Shenzong touched the three little heads, took their little hands up and held them in his hands, gently patted off the dust on them, and said, "Father is not in good health, I don't know when I will return to heaven." The three of you are the eldest among the children, if you are still so naughty and unconscious, how can your father hand over the country to you?"

Hearing Song Shenzong's words, Gonggong Long and other palace maids and eunuchs were so frightened that their souls flew away, and they pounced one by one, knelt down, and said loudly: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

Zhao Xu and his two younger brothers were shocked, they didn't know what was going on, and they didn't have the concept of life and death in their hearts. When I saw these people, I looked terrified, and I saw my father weeping sadly. Zhao Xu reacted quickly, and quickly knelt on the ground with a bang. Seeing that the two younger brothers were still standing stupidly, he pulled the corners of their clothes and whispered, "Kneel down." ”

The two younger brothers knelt on the ground at this time, but they couldn't help laughing, and felt that it was inappropriate, so they hurriedly reached out to cover their small mouths and lowered their heads.

Zhao Xu raised his little face and followed Gonggong Long, and they said loudly: "Long live my father, long live, long live, long live." ”

This is the first time that Song Shenzong has talked about his body in front of others, and he is a person who does not admit defeat. But now that his body is getting worse, he knows his body best, but he is afraid that it will be weaker and shorter. And now he sees that the eldest three children are still so uneasy, so he can't help but express the worry in his heart, that is, to let the three children be vigilant, work hard, and learn the ability to govern the country and secure the country, so that they can inherit the unification in the future.