In the winter month, Emperor Qingling asked Emperor Hao to resign from the post of supervising taxation on the grounds of physical discomfort.

Before this news could cause a shock in the government and the opposition, an even more shocking military report reached Lingxiao City at the same time:

The tens of thousands of troops of Lieyang in the Northern Continent crossed the Ice Blade Forest, changed the sea route, and marched from west to east by sea ship!

Between the northern continent and the western continent, there is a forest of ice blades that will not melt for thousands of years, plus a moat that seals the stream, and the land is not connected.

If you take the waterway, you can communicate with each other. However, the inhabitants of Hokuriku were nomadic herders and did not know how to build ships, let alone take their livestock to sea. The people of the Western Continent were accustomed to the warm climate and the days of prosperity, and they would never think of moving to the Northern Continent. Therefore, for thousands of years, there has been no contact and interaction between the west and north continents.

However, this time the Lieyang army attacked, apparently by boat along the sealed stream moat, passing through the Western Continent Sea. Obviously, to a certain extent, it has received the support and help of the people of the Western Continent.

When the news reached the capital, the government and the opposition were shocked, and the people were talking about it in the streets and alleys, and they were also terrified.

I thought that with the barrier of Xianxia Pass, I would be able to keep the Beilu barbarians out, but who would have thought that they would actually take the waterway!

The people of Nalieyang are notoriously barbaric and ferocious, and they are menacing, claiming to have 100,000 soldiers, and once the war starts, how can the battle-hardened Chaoyan army be their opponents?

Emperor Hao summoned his ministers in the main hall overnight to discuss countermeasures.

Yu Shi Cheng Mu looked anxious, "The only way to do this is to find a way to negotiate peace with the people of Lieyang!" Our army has been consumed by several battles, and it is completely powerless to fight against the 100,000 army of Lieyang at the moment! ”

Many courtiers in the palace nodded in agreement.

Shi Xiangjin stepped forward and bowed down and asked: "Your Majesty, the ministers dare not speak presumptuously about the matter of peace. It's just that now the treasury is tight, and it is difficult to maintain the military needs of the two places at the same time! The minister asked for the return of the troops sent to Jiuqiu to relieve the pressure on military resources! ”

As soon as these words came out, the voice of the discussion in the hall was silent for a moment, and then turned into a suppressed whisper.

The retreat of the southern army was tantamount to declaring an armistice against Jiuqiu. Although from the perspective of the overall situation, this proposal is understandable, but His Majesty's desire to destroy Jiuqiu has been a long time, and it has taken great effort to make this southern expedition, and everyone knows it, and they dare not dare to seconded Shi Xiangjin's words.

However, Fang Shanxiu, who has always been very good at grasping Emperor Hao's thoughts, opened his mouth, "On the day that Lieyang raided Xianxia Pass, Luo Heng, the national teacher of Jiuqiu, secretly sent forces to provoke trouble in various parts of the southern border and disperse the troops of the Chaoyan garrison. Although no ironclad evidence has been found in this matter, the ambition and conspiracy of Jiuqiu to secretly communicate with Lieyang and collude with it to overthrow the Eastern Continent are self-evident! Now that the sun is attacking again, it must be that he has colluded with Jiuqiu in private, taking advantage of the opportunity of our army to go south and launch an offensive. Therefore, the minister thinks that what Lord Shixiang said is not unreasonable. Jiuqiu has been in a corner for a long time, even if the attack is temporarily abandoned, there will be no damage to our dynasty, but the army of Lieyang has to be guarded against! ”

Compared to Lieyang's invasion, Fang Shanxiu was more worried about the increasing military power in Mu Chen's hands. Now that there is an opportunity to pull him down from the position of leader, he spares no effort to analyze the pros and cons.

And a more important opportunity is that Mu Chen's most powerful supporter and ally, Emperor Qingling, suddenly lost his original special status and value overnight!

As the only descendant of the Zhanggu clan, Qingling controls the Qingyun Sword that activates the barrier of Xianxia Pass, and has the special responsibility and ability to protect the Eastern Continent, so it has a decisive and extraordinary value in the eyes of the world and the Emperor.

Fang Shanxiu, who was proficient in the way of officialdom, dared to assert that Qing Ling's favor in front of His Majesty was definitely inseparable from her special value.

However, at present, the Xiayang people chose to abandon Xianxia Pass and invade from the West Sea instead, which is equivalent to indirectly indicating the fact that Qingling Emperor Ji is no longer so important to Chaoyan.

Although the emperor will not immediately lose power because of this, whether it is His Majesty's weighing and decision-making from now on, or the flow and distribution of forces between the DPRK and China, it will begin to change more or less.

Fang Shan Xiu opened his mouth, and the courtiers in the hall who had been hesitant sensed the direction of the wind, and they also echoed in a low voice.

Instead, Fang Shanlei stood up and expressed a different view from his father: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that although the things proposed by the two adults are not unreasonable, they may be too arbitrary. Although the minister was not familiar with maritime affairs, he was a military general who had commanded the army, and from the perspective of the strategy of troop transfer, if Lieyang directly sent 100,000 troops to the sea and sent them to the Eastern Continent, it would be a difficult problem to provide military supplies. Moreover, with the number of 100,000 troops, the number of ships required was no less than thousand, and the Western Continent and the Northern Continent had never interacted with each other, and it was far away from our Eastern Continent, so it was not at all possible to gain any practical benefits from helping Lieyang to attack Chaoyan. Therefore, the minister thought that instead of rushing to adjust the military deployment of the whole country just because of a military report, it was better to send people into the sea to meet with the people of Lieyang first, find out their intentions, and by the way, find out the truth of their troops, and then make plans. ”

Fang Shanlei's words were clear and clear, and his tone was calm and steady, but it seemed that the group of panicked and anxious old ministers in the palace were a little too confused.

Especially at this critical juncture, there was a panic in the hearts of the people inside and outside the court, and the subjects were talking about how powerful Lieyang's army was, how ruthless and cruel the means of killing were, and as soon as they opened their mouths, they proposed peace, only Fang Shanlei could stand up and calmly analyze the reality and reality, point directly to the weak points of the other party, and improve the morale of the country from the side, and its practical significance was far beyond the literal meaning.

Emperor Hao couldn't help but appreciate Fang Shanlei a little more in his heart, and said with his head in his head: "Yes, the matter has not been clarified yet," he stretched out his hand and pointed at everyone in the hall, his eyes were sharp and harsh, "You guys are panicking one by one?" The more times like this, the more we should show the bearing and self-confidence that a great country should have! If you, as courtiers, all look like you are facing a great enemy, then will the common people not be even more afraid, and simply don't even want to live their lives? ”

When the ministers heard this, they hurriedly trembled and pleaded guilty, and they secretly slandered in their hearts, Fang Shanxiu is really an old traitor and cunning, first he made a statement that deviated from the direction of the court, but then let his son stand up and acupuncture the disadvantages of the times, not to mention the limelight, and also lined them with a group of old ministers who were stupid!

Fang Shanxiu shouted in his heart that he was wronged, leaned over and looked at his son diagonally opposite, and for a while it was difficult to distinguish joy and anger in his chest.

After the discussion of the main hall was completed, Emperor Hao issued a decree, an old uncle in the Feng clan was the envoy, and Fang Shanlei was the deputy envoy, and he traveled west to meet with the people of Lieyang, and secretly sent several masters of the Protoss in the forbidden army to accompany the envoys, preparing to infiltrate the army to gain insight into the reality of its troops.

At the same time, a summoning order was issued to urgently summon the imperial marquis of Daze Baili Yu to enter Beijing.

～～

Qing Ling hid in the dormitory with his illness, playing chess with himself every day to pass the time.

These days of meditation and self-persuasion have made her gradually accept the life of retreat to the deep palace.

Isn't it just to take a step back and be a woman who doesn't ask about the world? In Chongwu's more than 300 years, it has been like this, and now it is difficult to fade the sharpness of overcoming thorns and thorns?

But the news of the previous dynasty spread extremely quickly in the Suzaku Palace. Within half a day, the invasion of Lieyang and the successive imperial decrees issued by Emperor Hao also reached the Yinque Palace.

Qing Ling, who was holding on to the chess pieces and thinking about the next step, suddenly maintained the movement of raising his hand for a long time, and at the end, he suddenly got up and overturned the chessboard.

It was the first time for the palace maids serving around to see the emperor trembling like this, and her eyes seemed to be about to shine, and they were so frightened that they didn't even have the courage to come forward to persuade them.

Qing Ling stood in place for a moment, then turned around and hurried out of the hall.

The skirt was flying, the fluttering sleeves were clenched, and the fingertips were pinched into the palms.

It's him!

It's the man!

After leaving Zhangguo Mountain for three days and nights, all the way to the north, he was seriously injured when he returned......

Although each of them is not empirical, Qing Ling just knows that this matter is definitely related to him!

This intuition is like the involvement between blood and bones, for no reason, but she can't help but resist. It was as if she had been so instinctively sure that he wouldn't deliberately harm her with his flames......

Qing Ling didn't care about attracting attention and alarming a large number of guards, so he directly summoned the Qilin mount and hurried to the Chengji Hall of the Emperor's bedroom.

When he arrived outside the hall, he ran to the top of the steps, but he bumped into Queen Fangshan in luxurious attire.

Behind the queen, followed by Ah Jing and Mu Han, who had not seen each other for a long time. When the two of them saw Qing Ling, they both coldly turned their eyes away. Mu Han's face was even more undisguised with disgust.

Since returning to the palace, Qing Ling has avoided meeting with the queen and others, either running to his mansion in the city from time to time, or hiding in the palace under the claim of illness, and does not interact with people.

Queen Fangshan no longer deliberately maintained the politeness on the surface, except for the necessary arrangements for living, she would not have any unnecessary contact with Yinque Palace on weekdays.

At this time, they suddenly bumped into each other, and both sides were slightly embarrassed.

The queen looked at Qing Ling's expression, expected her intention, and said coldly: "Your Majesty has gone to Fuyu Mountain." Come back in a few days. ”

Qing Ling was anxious, and he couldn't care about the grievances with the queen, and asked, "When will he come back?" ”

Mu Han on the side was already suppressing his anger, and now he couldn't listen to it anymore, he stepped forward and reprimanded with a gloomy expression: "Is there anyone like you who talks to the queen mother?" When he saw the elder, he neither saluted nor greeted him, but when he came up, he asked aggressively, and dared to call his father 'him'! What an uneducated girl! ”

It stands to reason that Qing Ling was indeed at fault, and Mu Han's accusation was originally justified, but he really underestimated Qing Ling's hatred for himself.

Qing Ling raised his head, stared at Mu Han's peach blossom eyes, and sneered, "Then how do you think I should speak?" Kneel down three times and bow nine times, thank you for your grace of not killing in the Casting Dingtai? I didn't have a father and mother since I was a child, I really don't know etiquette, you have a mother who teaches you by word and deed, you have cultivation, why don't you know how to greet your eldest sister when you see it? How I call my father is my business, he doesn't care, you are a mere deserter on the battlefield, what qualifications do you have? ”

So saying, he passed over the crowd and went straight into the temple.

blamed herself for being dizzy, she thought as she walked, just ask the palace people about her father's itinerary, why bother to entangle with this mother and son boringly?

Mu Han behind him turned pale with anger, and regardless of the eyes of the queen mother, he shook off Ah Jing's hand holding his sleeve, and said angrily: "Don't think you have anything great!" Isn't it just that broken sword all the time? Now that the people of Lieyang have come from the West Sea, Xianxia Pass is no longer useful, and your sword is just a piece of waste! Without that reliance, do you think you can still be like before, with people on their toes in front and behind them to drill power tricks and win over party henchmen? You'd better pray that you don't make the slightest mistake from now on, or I'll let you suffer the consequences and ruin your reputation at any time! ”