In this highest-level study room of the Zhao Kingdom, where only two people survived, only Emperor Zhao understood the figure that appeared in the black-clothed man's mind at this moment.

This is a visual method that requires a little chess skill to have, in the table with cluttered lines, the old lines and dots are filtered and stripped away, and a chessboard and chess pieces sketched by the latest ink are obtained. And this qiē does not use paper and pen, it is all based on a thought in the mind.

One of the reasons why the man in black did this was that he didn't want to leave the chess game in case he wanted to leak Emperor Zhao's mind out of the palace and cause unnecessary trouble; Second, he often exercises his mind through this move, so that he will not be emotionally paralyzed when he has hidden his identity and lived in the Forbidden Palace for a long time.

Emperor Zhao expressed his agreement and admiration for the behavior of the man in black.

Emperor Zhao just has a good memory, but his own martial arts cultivation is not as advanced as this man in black, so he can't achieve the realm of the man in black, and he just speculates on the process through the other party's answers. Sometimes he was a little skeptical, and it was difficult for him to understand what it was like for a person to reach a certain state of internal breath cultivation and adjust his vision to this almost demonic state through guò pranayama.

At the beginning, Emperor Zhao often couldn't help but ask, and for the depiction of the man in black, Emperor Zhao could only understand that this was a slight feeling close to when you were able to predict in advance when the other party would release the strings when you were facing an archer aiming at you, but it was always impossible to describe it specifically, so I asked very little later.

However, even if this kind of doubt in Emperor Zhao's heart appeared occasionally, it was only a matter of a moment, because it didn't take three hours, even if the man in black couldn't solve his chess game, he could completely restore this game of chess.

Solving chess is actually an entertainment for the man in black to relieve his boredom when he just followed Emperor Zhao into the palace. Later, with the accumulation of time and the change of identity, Emperor Zhao borrowed the wisdom of this friend who was unwilling to show the public and unwilling to participate in politics, and at the same time added a little fun and difficulty to the chess game, he mixed in some of his own ideas.

In fact, the position occupied by each chess piece on this chessboard has a certain meaning, and the man in black just looks at the position of the chess on the chessboard, and his thinking never flies out of the chessboard to worry about the identity and status that the chess pieces also represent, but sometimes he can see more clearly than Emperor Zhao, taking into account some problems that Emperor Zhao may ignore.

And for Emperor Zhao's small means, the man in black didn't care.

He doesn't want to expose himself to the public, he doesn't want to participate in politics, that is, he doesn't want to figure out those complex and changeable things. However, Emperor Zhao is the person he trusts in his heart, and after all, because of his identity, he has to choose allegiance but makes him willing to be loyal, so he will not speculate about this person like he needs to speculate about others.

This is a slightly muddy relationship between friends but close to the monarch and ministers, as for whether Emperor Zhao's behavior contains other meanings, as long as he does not participate in politics and does not reveal his identity, the man in black naturally does not care, this is a secret agreement that no one knows except these two people. This is also the reason why Emperor Zhao admired him and regarded him as a confidant, regardless of his courtesy.

The man in black was gradually attracted by the chess game on the table, and Emperor Zhao saw this, stood up and stretched. According to the usual practice, this chess game, the result of solving or not solving, it is estimated that he will not know until he returns from presiding over the early dynasty, and he is not in a hurry about this.

It's just that this time he was wrong.

He only got up and took a few steps away from the desk when he heard the man in black suddenly say, "Wait a minute." ”

Emperor Zhao stopped and turned sideways, and said in slight surprise: "Could it be that you solved it so quickly?" ”

The man in black did not reply immediately, but took a small millimeter from the pen shelf, dipped it in some vermilion ink and counted the dragonflies on the table.

Emperor Zhao's interest suddenly aroused, and he naturally walked to the table to watch. In the past, he came back to see the whole picture given to him by the man in black, and this is the first time he watched the painting process of the man in black.

The man in black first used vermilion ink to point the chess pieces of Emperor Zhao's side, and then switched to using lacquer ink to point the opponent's chess pieces. In the eyes of the man in black, the black chess pieces are only the difference between Party A and Party B, while in the eyes of Emperor Zhao, the black chess pieces include not only today's enemies, but also future friends, as well as the accumulated chess pieces that are friends today and may become enemies in the future.

The chess pieces are alive, but the chessboard is dead, and the man in black did not draw the chessboard, but only finished clicking the black and red chess pieces, and then put down his pen and stopped.

Then I saw him standing at the big table in the imperial study like a javelin, calmly looking at Emperor Zhao's somewhat dark-eyed face, and then said slowly: "It's time for you to change a game of chess." ”

The chessboard was clear in his chest, and the chess pieces seemed to have not moved, Emperor Zhao swept the table and said casually: "Why do you say this?" ”

The man in black said lightly: "Several times, all of them are pairs, each pair once, the more your path is clearer to the other party, although it widens the road in front of you, but don't you think that you have fewer and fewer chess pieces available?" ”

Emperor Zhao's face was calm: "So what? ”

"Each chess piece has its own mission, no one can do everything by himself, although you" The man in black suddenly closed his mouth, and after a while, he said again: "Maybe it's not who made a wrong move, but this chess game is no longer suitable for a certain situation." ”

"Oh?" When Emperor Zhao heard this, a glimmer of brilliance flashed in his eyes, and he did not say anything about the words of the man in black, but looked at him with interest and said: "Ah Li, I suddenly have an impulse today to take you out of the palace, if you help me analyze political affairs, what kind of wisdom will you have?" But I'm afraid to see you change at that time. ”

The man in black, who was called 'Ah Li' by Emperor Zhao, did not speak when he heard this, but began to be habitually silent again.

Emperor Zhao seemed to have become accustomed to the reaction of the man in black when he touched on that topic. Not negative, not explained, but he likes it.

Relieved by this, Emperor Zhao suddenly raised his voice twice and shouted, "Xiao Haizi, come in." ”

The door was quickly pushed open, and when Gonggong Hai bowed slightly and stepped in the door, Emperor Zhao only heard a sound of clothes in his ears, and a very shallow word "you", although it was shallow, but there was a clear hint of complaint.

I don't know why, thinking of his martial arts friend, because of his withdrawn personality, he was taken the opportunity to put one, some wolves, some hastily didn't know which dark corner he went to, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously floated a happy smile-

The court meeting on April 10 of the first year of Zhaoli was the most peculiar atmosphere since the new monarch ascended the throne for 92 days. After the court meeting, when dozens of officials slowly walked out of the Taihe Hall one after another, although they were all silent, they were thinking about something similar in their hearts.

Kyoto is garrisoning Xue Zhong and deputy garrison Yan Lu to catch the traitor Lin Shan in accordance with the holy order, and now Yin received a secret report from the Privy Council, and the Yulin army cooperated, but the operation failed, and His Majesty Xià expressed his anger.

Xue Zhong's impression of the hundred officials is half of His Majesty's henchmen. And at the court meeting early this morning, Xue Zhong broke his leg because he was injured in the process of arresting the traitor, and he was sick at home, but His Majesty sent two imperial servants to Xue Zhong's house to set him up, and he didn't even give him a stretcher.

Yan Lu is even more miserable, and he will be punished for resisting the decree.

His Majesty ordered him to be captured alive, but Yan Lu split the carriage suspected of being Lin Shan's ride in half with a single sword. Although there is a reason for this, Yan Lu didn't really want to kill, but this fierce act seemed to go against His Majesty's intentions and anger Long Yan. Because Yan Lu is too hard-tempered, he doesn't have many friends in the court, and few people dare to defend Yan Lu in the face of holy anger and intercede.

It's like the master telling his subordinates to pick the fruit, and especially telling them to climb the tree to pick it, being careful not to break the branches. And the subordinate because of the inability to climb the tree, on the scoop stick to stab, as a result, the fruit can not be, the leaves of the fruit tree are dropped most of the half, although the subordinate has a very hard and serious mind, want to pick the fruit for the master, but the master not only does not appreciate it, but also very angry - this very angry master is still the emperor of the dynasty!

In addition, the archers on the city tower were also under the order of Yan Lu to change Xue Zhong, and set up their bows to aim at the carriage, but only to guide zhì later missed repeatedly, and the heavy armor-piercing arrows forged from stainless steel shot the carriage to pieces.

Although the various officials outside the matter had their own suspicions about why His Majesty wanted to capture him alive, Yan Lu, as the deputy envoy, was really suspected of overstepping the order in front of the envoy, and the series of drastic actions that followed also seemed to have the meaning of contempt for the holy oracle - although the carriage was very strangely empty.

The two kinds of mistakes are stacked on top of each other, and they have a strange opposite effect. Yan Lu, who violated the taboo in a row, was demoted two levels in a row, and was sent to Cheongju in Linhai to serve as the commander-in-chief of the garrison, although he could still receive the rank of five-rank military attaché, but in fact it was a level where the official rank was almost vacuum. If there were no major battles in Zhaoguo, he would probably have to fight there for the rest of his life.

Maybe he can be a land bully if he mixes well, but he can't return to his hometown without Shengyun, and he can't return to Beijing without being summoned, staying in one place for a long time is undoubtedly the biggest torment for him who grew up on a horse.

This punishment is a bit heavy in terms of view, but those who can see clearly the existing undercurrents in the court will be able to understand why His Majesty did this. And those who can look a little farther can even smell it, and His Majesty's move is a little more than a little more than that, and he is ruthless and does not kill them all.

For Xue Zhong's final punishment, His Majesty was a slight punishment, even full of love.

He was fined for half a year, and sent to the bad water and poor mountains in the South Gorge to face the wall and think about it, and he was not allowed to eat meat for three months. His Majesty only verbally punished Xue Zhong, and returned the sentence at the end: "When I return to the court in half a year, if I see you again with this crippled appearance, I will never have to appear in front of my eyes in the future." Although such a sentence was full of monarchical and holy anger, it made many officials present red-eyed.

The emperor's oracle, for the emperor's favored ministers, is a verbal word, and when the emperor is in a good mood, he can also give another oracle to pull it back.

Therefore, when Xue Zhong faced His Majesty's verbal punishment and knelt on the ground, his eyes were sad and tearful, crying and blaming himself, among the dozens of officials standing in the column, a few felt a burst of depression in their hearts.