In the imperial palace, as early as the early years of the Shenghan Dynasty, the "Palace Law" was promulgated for how to deal with the concubines of the first emperor, which clearly stipulated: After the death of the emperor, the first emperor and the new emperor's biological mother were ranked as the queen mother and the imperial concubine of the West Palace, and if the first emperor did not have a queen, the imperial concubine would automatically be promoted to the queen mother, which is why Zhang Guifei became the queen mother. For the other concubines of the former emperor, the "Palace Law" requires them to be sent to the West Palace to be raised, but their treatment needs to be reduced, and the service staff and monthly salary must be reduced to one-third of the original.

The Yangyi Garden is located in the West Palace, which is under the management of the Empress Dowager of the West Palace, and the Empress Dowager Zhang is not a generous person, so the concubines of the first emperor of the harem often end up very miserably. In August of the second year of Dade, six concubines of the first emperor had hanged themselves, which caused a lot of discussion inside and outside the government and the opposition.

Emperor Dade said: "The concubines of the first emperor are troublesome, and the palace needs to spend a lot of money every year to support them, especially my father has more than 90 concubines and beauties. I decided to rectify the summer garden, but I was worried that reducing the treatment of the summer garden would make outsiders gossip. You know that my father and the emperor have more than 90 concubines and beauties, the oldest of whom are fifty-three years old, and the younger ones are nineteen years old. He smiled bitterly and asked, "First of all, tell me, how can I reduce the use of the summer garden, and not be harsh on them, and not let people gossip?" ”

This kind of question is indeed too tricky, Zhang Xiaowu immediately waved his hand and said: "The minister is an outsider, how can he answer the affairs in the palace, and it is related to the first emperor, I won't talk about it, I won't say it." ”

Emperor Dade said: "It's okay, it's okay, the bystanders are confused, if you say it's okay, I may not listen." ”

Zhang Xiaowu thought for a while and said: "If you are happy, then the minister will dare to say it." I think the concubines of the first emperor can be divided into two categories, the first type is the concubines who have given birth to the children of the first emperor, these people are the best to deal with, just need to send them to their children to retire and die. I think they are willing to live with their children in their hearts, and His Majesty's brothers and sisters are also willing to live with their birth mothers. The beauty of adults is the great beauty of the world, and Your Majesty can try it. ”

Emperor Dade said: "But there has never been such a disposal method before, and there is no record in the "Palace Law". ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "Rules are dead, people are alive, all rules are for people, people are not for rules." Your Majesty, if everyone lives by the rules, who will overthrow the Tiantang Empire, and how will my Shenghan Empire be established? Rules are a constraint on proper behavior, but when some rules are not suitable for the times, new rules must replace the old rules. ”

Emperor Dade nodded, thinking in his heart that if he gave them to his children, Neku would naturally be able to save a lot of money.

Zhang Xiaowu said: "The second type is the concubines who have never given birth to children, you can send them to the cemetery to guard the spirit, and some old eunuchs and old palace maids in the palace can also follow them, and allocate a small courtyard for them in the cemetery, so that they can cultivate and live by themselves, and even let their mother's family help, but outsiders are not allowed to step into the cemetery." Of course, they can go to the cemetery with their own gold and silver jewelry, and those with good minds will definitely live well, and those with bad minds can only barely live, no wonder others. ”

Emperor Dade said: "You mean, let them fend for themselves? ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "The imperial court can give them seeds and some silver taels, so that they can live on their own, and they only need to send the Imperial Forest Army to simply maintain order and prevent outsiders from entering the cemetery, I don't think there will be a big mess." ”

"Great goodness, that's it." Emperor Dade laughed and immediately asked Laixi to write it down.

At this time, the eunuch who passed the message said that Tang Guifei was coming, and it turned out that Tang Guifei heard that Empress Dowager Zhang was driven back to the West Palace by Emperor Dade, and the old lady was killed.

However, Tang Guifei didn't understand the real reason why Emperor Dade wanted to kill the old mama, not because the old mama offended him, but because he warned everyone not to touch the imperial power through the blood of the old mama.

Emperor Dade let Zhang Xiaowu go down and told him to recruit him into the palace at a later date, and Zhang Xiaowu took the order and left.

When Zhang Xiaowu left the palace, he saw Gou Delu again, and Father-in-law Lu was waiting for him at the gate of the palace, and when he saw him coming, he smiled and stuffed him with a silver bag. Zhang Xiaowu was surprised, it has always been the ministers who stuffed the silver to the father-in-law and eunuchs, how could any eunuch give gifts to the ministers, Zhang Xiaowu said: "Father-in-law Lu, are you trying to torture me?" ”

Gou Delu said with a smile: "This is a congratulatory gift, first congratulate General Zhang on becoming a close minister of the Son of Heaven." ”

Zhang Xiaowu asked, "Father-in-law Lu, I don't know something. ”

"General Zhang, please speak."

"Why does the Son of Heaven trust me so much?"

Gou Delu joked: "Do you still have two hearts?" ”

Zhang Xiaowu immediately said: "Naturally, no, I am loyal to Your Majesty and to the Holy Han River." ”

Gou Delu applauded: "Then come on, since the Son of Heaven trusts you, why are you still uneasy?" If you live up to Your Majesty, Your Majesty will naturally not fail you. ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "I just feel like I suddenly dug up a treasure, and I am scared in my heart." ”

Gou Delu pursed his lips and smiled: "It doesn't have to be like this, the Son of Heaven trusts you, naturally because you are trustworthy, you just need to do a good job for the Son of Heaven." Our family will also have to rely on the general's protection in the future, and some things in the palace need the cooperation of the general and our family to be done. ”

"It's easy to say, it's easy to say."

Gou Delu arranged for a small gate officer of the Royal Forest Army to follow Zhang Xiaowu and send him to the post station of the military department.

This official is also one of the Imperial Forest Army, the number of the Royal Forest Army is less than 10,000, but there are many classifications, some stand guard in front of the emperor, some are on duty as miscellaneous laborers, and some are coolies. This is like a civil servant, who sits in the administrative building all day long and eats and takes cards, and there are also those who work desperately on the front line of flood control and disaster prevention. You don't see one out of a hundred people who take the civil service exam every year, but there are some jobs that can't be recruited or no one cares.

And the same is true for the Imperial Forest Army, which is often said to be the Imperial Forest Army that protects the emperor, but that is only one of the Royal Forest Army that is full-time responsible for standing guard and on duty. For example, this official was actually responsible for taking care of the chariots and horses for the various ministers who entered the imperial city, and even arranging forage.

Zhang Xiaowu asked where Li Canglan was, and the doorman said that General Li was checking everywhere, and he didn't know where General Li was. Zhang Xiaowu laughed, this Li Canglan was stumped by the trivial matters of his mother-in-law and mother all day long, and he was really annoyed, and even his feelings for Dushanbo were not as good as before.

Zhang Xiaowu originally planned to live in the shop of Shunxingfang, but the military department arranged an inn for them, and the inn was in Liulifang, one of the thirty-six squares in the inner city.

The military department yamen is divided into two parts, the military department yamen in the imperial city is called the military department inner yamen, and the military department yamen in the glass square is also called the outer yamen. The yamen in the Ministry of War has only two functions, one is the Treasury Department that stores the archives and records of the Ministry of War, and the other is the Huwei Hall that prepares the deliberations of the early dynasty; The outer yamen of the military department is divided into nine divisions, namely the martial arts department, the honor guard department, the merit order department, the post transmission department, the ordnance smuggling, the military salary department, the janissary department, the inspection department and the military affairs department.

Although Longdu also has a post station, the post station in Longdu is only responsible for collecting information from the world, and is not responsible for entertaining the border army, so the post division arranged them to an inn in Liulifang. It is said that this inn is one of the industries of the Shi Yong Shi family of the Ministry of War, and every year relying on this inn, the Shi family can earn more than 100,000 taels of silver.

After Zhang Xiaowu arrived in Liulifang, he first went to the Military Affairs Department to report, and then the Military Affairs Department attracted officials from the Post Affairs Department and led him to the inn.

Many officials of the Ministry of War came to see what the ghost general looked like, but it was a pity that Zhang Xiaowu was preoccupied at this time and had no intention of talking to people.

met with the emperor, but caused a big disaster, Zhang Xiaowu just wanted to say: I am too difficult......

It was not Zhang Xiaowu's original intention to kill the old lady in the palace, it can be seen that the old lady was so unscrupulous in front of the Great Emperor, Zhang Xiaowu still couldn't help but kill the killer. After killing the old lady, he will definitely be impeached by hundreds of officials, especially the impeachment of Zhang Dang's people, but the matter has come to this point, there is no regret medicine to take, he can only take one step at a time. As for what ifs, there are no ifs, because even if he goes back a few hours ago, he will still kill the old woman.

It is impossible for people to take advantage of everything, killing the old lady is to express his attitude to the emperor, even if he offends the Empress Dowager Zhang, he also offends the Zhang Party. If he doesn't kill the old lady, he won't get any benefits, but he will offend Emperor Dade, so why bother.

"I came to Longdu, but I lost my position as the commander of the ghost guard, and I really lost more than I gained." Zhang Xiaowu shook his head and smiled bitterly at himself.

After returning to the inn in Liulifang, Ruan Qingwen and the others saw Zhang Xiaowu and hurriedly surrounded him, Ruan Qingwen hurriedly asked: "General, I heard that someone in the military department said that you were appointed as the imperial guard with a sword, and this imperial guard with a sword is just an official of the fifth grade, and you are a third-rank general." ”

Zhang Xiaowu smiled: "The news spread quickly. ”

Ruan Qingwen said: "A dealer who specializes in selling news came to me and said that he sold me a piece of good news and earned me fifty yuan. ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "There are still traffickers who specialize in selling news? ”

Ruan Qingwen said with a smile: "This kind of person is called Shunfeng Er, but he is just a news broker, and most of them are related to the subordinates of some officials who are not strict-mouthed. ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "Then he must not know what happened to me next." ”

"Woe?"

Zhang Xiaowu told everyone about his experience in these days, especially the murder of the old lady in the palace, and everyone was stunned when they heard it, and they didn't speak for a long time.

"You killed her grandmother in front of the Queen Mother?" Ruan Qingwen's eyes widened and he shouted, "You really killed her?" You- you did this kind of thing. He then shook his head and smiled bitterly, looked up to the sky and sighed: "I told you a thousand times, but I never expected that you were still impulsive, too impulsive." ”

Wang Yijin, Chen Guanxi and others also lowered their heads, not knowing what to say, the person who can kill the Queen Mother, the general is really brave, of course, it can also be said to be reckless.

At this time, it was Kang Tianen who suddenly applauded and said: "Take retreat as advance, self-pollution and revitalize the overall situation, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!" ”

"What did you say?" Ruan Thanh Van said.

Kang Tianen said: "I said that the general's move seems to offend the Queen Mother, but in fact, it shows everyone's attitude, Du Shanbo knows that he will definitely not be able to join Zhang Dang, so he will not investigate deeply." And it is impossible for Zhang Dang to attack the imperial court officials for the sake of a grandmother, especially the local officials who are in charge of the military. The most important thing is that by killing Mama, His Majesty can finally transfer the general to Longdu, and then the general can show his strength. ”

"Showing your strength?" Zhang Xiaowu asked rhetorically, "You mean I'm about to be reused?" It's just a deputy commander of the Royal Forest, and he can use any punches and kicks. ”

Everyone looked strange and didn't dare to laugh, and said in their hearts, General, you can get it, can you not pretend like this, what is called the deputy commander of the Royal Forest Army, General Jin Wu is the only one in the world. The lieutenant general of the Imperial Forest Army is responsible for the entire Imperial Forest Army, and the task of the Imperial Forest Army Jin Wu General is to protect the safety of the emperor.

"Alas...... I thought that Xiao Kai would show his strength in Longdu after leaving me, but I didn't expect that I came to Longdu first, this matter is troublesome, alas, ......" Zhang Xiaowu smiled bitterly.

Kang Tianen said: "Unless the world is in chaos, it is better for the general to be in Beijing, and with Dushan Bo, the general trend of the world will inevitably be chaotic." And the general can take the opportunity to make friends with the powerful in the dragon capital, consolidate power, and prepare for the future residence in the court. ”

Zhang Xiaowu asked, "Do you want me to be the second Dushan Bo?" ”

Kang Tianen asked rhetorically: "How can a big husband walk in the world, how can he be a living being?" The general is already a unicorn in the clouds and a dragon in the water, even if he hides at the ends of the earth, he can't escape this earthly strife. Even if the general can avoid the disputes between the DPRK and China in Saibei, if the general stays in Saibei, he will look at the yellow sand all his life and bow his head to the soil, and repeat his life for decades. ”

Ruan Qingwen hurriedly said: "You can't say that. ”

Kang Tianen said: "Senior brother, do you know that it is impossible for any leaf to go with the flow, and those who want to mess with life will end up messing with themselves the worst." Those who dare to fight the waves can show their true colors as heroes. ”

"It's a good point, those who dare to fight the waves can show their true colors as heroes!" Zhang Xiaowu laughed, and then said: "I'll take you to eat something good today, a catty, tell the store, give us the best wine and food, come to Longdu once, brothers don't be shabby." ”

"Good!" The crowd shouted hurriedly.

Bao Yin shouted: "General, can you call a few dancing girls and singers from the Qinglou to sing and dance for the brothers?" ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "Naturally, you can, but the dancing girls and singers of the Qinglou are all pure girls who sell themselves and don't sell their arts, you pickled men don't just go up and touch others, you know?" ”

"Got it, let's just look at it, not touch it." The crowd laughed.