June 21, 15th year of the calendar

Shengjing, the main hall of the Imperial Palace

With a sharp "retreat" from the chamberlain next to Emperor Liyang on the dragon chair, the court meeting ended successfully, and the time was almost noon.

According to the regulations of the Northern Jin Dynasty, the Great Dynasty will be held every five days, and all officials above the fifth grade in Beijing must attend the meeting, and they are not allowed to ask for leave without reason, and if there are foreign officials who return to Beijing, have official business or are summoned by the emperor, they must also participate in the court meeting.

However, in recent times, because the war has just ended, the court affairs are busy, Emperor Liyang specially issued a decree to change the five-day dynasty to a three-day dynasty, and the court meeting time will also be greatly extended, and the next dynasty will even reach dusk at the latest.

It was only a day of standing at one station, and the legs were weak when they left the palace, and the ministers who were old or in poor health had to be supported when they walked.

What's even worse is that this court meeting will be held for one day, during which Emperor Liyang will let the inner servants send food and water, but because they can't defile the holy car (go to the toilet in front of the emperor), the ministers don't dare to eat more, at most barely take a bite, and when the court meeting is over, the stomach is already hungry.

Today is considered to be smooth, the court meeting is over at noon, the ministers are still in spirit, but they rush here before dawn, and they dare not eat and drink more in the morning for fear of losing their temper in the morning.

Most of the people hurried to the palace gate, ready to go outside the palace to fill their stomachs.

…………

As a prince, King Duan naturally doesn't have to be as embarrassed as an ordinary minister, his chamberlain can follow him into the palace, and he can carry some dried meat with him to quench his hunger.

Out of the main hall, King Duan turned around for half a circle, and saw his personal eunuch Wang Jiugong waving at him in an ear room.

"Lord Wang."

Duan Wang walked over quickly, and after Wang Jiugong waited for him to enter the door, he immediately closed the door carefully, and pointed to a few plates of snacks on the table in the ear room.

"Lord Wang, if you're hungry, you can eat first."

Duan Wang also reached out and stuffed a piece of jujube paste yam cake into his mouth, took two or three bites, and then asked.

"Where did the stuff come from?"

Wang Jiugong diligently poured a glass of water for King Duan: "The big palace maid next to the Queen Mother sent it, saying that it was specially prepared for you, and the dim sum slaves and maids have all checked, no problem." ”

King Duan knew that he should have said this unintentionally when he went to the Queen Mother to ask for peace last time, and the Queen Mother remembered it, so this time he sent someone over to deliver snacks when he saw the previous dynasty's court meeting.

He has long been tired of eating dried meat, and now he has more delicious snacks, which can be regarded as a change of taste.

"When I go back, I remember to tell the princess, let her enter the palace to ask the queen mother for peace, and by the way, I will tell the queen mother, the king of Japan is busy with government affairs these days, and he has no time to go to the harem in person to ask for peace, I hope the old man will understand."

Duan Wang stuffed a piece of brown sugar glutinous rice ball into his mouth again, and then explained to Wang Jiugong, Wang Jiugong hurriedly nodded yes, and said that he had written it down.

Duan Wang bowed slightly, said no more, and began to deal with the dim sum in front of him.

…………

After relieving the hunger in his belly, Duan Wang no longer used it, simply took a sip of tea and sent it away, then got up and walked out, and Wang Jiugong hurriedly followed.

Soon after the master and the servant left the transept, a young official in a green robe appeared in the transept, quietly cleaned the remnants of the transept, and then vanished.

This person is an official under the palace attendant Yushi, who is responsible for supervising the court ceremony and managing the affairs of the court, so that he can find an ear room for King Duan in the main hall of the court meeting as a place to rest.

There is also King Jing who is treated the same as King Duan, which is also the care that Emperor Liyang secretly acquiesced to the two princes.

After all, they are their own sons, and Emperor Liyang is reluctant to let them suffer............

Leaving the main hall, King Duan took Wang Jiugong straight out of the palace gate, and then after a circle around the household department and the ritual department, he took people back to the Duanwang Mansion in the east city.

Since returning from the front line, Emperor Liyang has snubbed the two princes of King Jing and King Duan, and although they were allowed to participate in the court meeting to listen to politics, they were not allowed to interfere in any specific evidence.

King Duan didn't dare to disobey the holy order, so he could only spend the rest of his time in the palace, except for occasionally going to the household department where he had stayed before and the ritual department where his teacher was located, to brush up his sense of existence.

Just now, he told Wang Jiugong that he didn't have time to visit the Queen Mother, he was completely talking nonsense with his eyes open, there were a lot of government affairs in the court, but there was nothing to do with him, and he had quite plenty of time.

The reason why he didn't enter the palace to ask the Queen Mother for peace was not that he didn't want to, but that Emperor Liyang was busy with political affairs now, and he ran to the harem leisurely, for fear that Emperor Liyang would not like it, and didn't see that King Jing was also honestly staying in his own palace, and didn't go to visit Concubine Yu for many days.

Now that the battle for the heir is becoming more and more intense, last night's words and deeds of the two of them would attract the attention of countless people, so they naturally have to be extra cautious.

…………

Back in the palace, King Duan sent Wang Jiugong to send a message to the princess, and he went to the study to study by himself, but it didn't take long for Wang Jiugong to come back and tell him that the princess had something to look for him.

King Duan put down the scroll and came to the backyard with Wang Jiugong, and as soon as he entered the door, he saw his princess holding a letter with some excitement.

"Lord Wang, look at whose letter this is."

Princess Duan's surname is Zhang, her maiden family is the Zhang family of the Northern Jin Dynasty, a famous scholarly family, from the previous dynasty to the present generation, there is at least one Jinshi, no exception, protégés and former officials are all over the court and the opposition.

Nowadays, although the Zhang family does not have any important ministers in the court, its influence in the middle and lower classes cannot be underestimated.

It can be said that if Duanwang did not combine with the Zhang family, the power under his command could be reduced by two to three percent, which shows the strength of the Zhang family.

Duanwang and Zhang's are still in love, the only pity is that Zhang's is not blessed and has not given birth to a son, resulting in Duanwang's current sons are all concubines, which makes Zhang's deeply regretful.

Fortunately, King Duan didn't care about this matter, but paid attention to Zhang's letter, and assured that all these concubines were handed over to Zhang's to raise.

As a result, Emperor Liyang also looked at Zhang's daughter-in-law a little differently, and once praised her as virtuous and virtuous at a palace banquet, and she was a model of a royal woman.

Because of this, Princess Jing was so angry that she went home and smashed a lot of things, and she had a big quarrel with King Jing, and Princess Duan was even more delicate.

Whether it is inside or outside or among the people, Princess Duan's reputation has crushed Princess Jing to death.

…………

In this way, King Duan admired his princess very much, and now seeing that she was rare to lose her temper, she was no longer elegant and graceful, and he was very curious about this letter, and he was busy taking a closer look.

Then, he almost didn't collapse.........

This letter turned out to be written by Yan Kui's wife Huang Wei'er.

The content of the letter is very simple, roughly to greet Princess Duan, and then thank Princess Duan for her gift of medicine at that time, and at the same time express his admiration and respect for Princess Duan, and hope to have more dealings with Princess Duan in the future.

“………”

King Duan read the letter, turned his head to look at his princess, and his voice trembled slightly: "This letter is really written by the Huang family?" ”

Princess Duan and Duan Chaoxi got along with each other, understood her husband's mood, and when she saw his inquiry, she quickly nodded and replied affirmatively.

"The person who came to deliver the letter carefully checked it, his name is Chen Liuzi, he is Yan Kui's confidant, he followed General Pingbei in his early years, and he is deeply trusted.

Now he is the manager of the General's Mansion, and he is quite powerful, and many people know him, so I specially asked a few people who have been to Qingyuan to meet him, and I can't be wrong. ”

"Hoo ........."

Hearing this, Duan Wang breathed a sigh of relief, and then stood up excitedly and kept pacing in the room.

"This is Yan Kui's release of goodwill to this king, so that his wife and the princess can contact you, which is low-key and not criticized, and it is a good plan to kill multiple birds with one stone."

…………

Duanwang was very excited about Huang Weier's letter, and he thought that this was a sign that Yan Kui had thrown himself into the Duanwang party.

Before, in order to win over Yan Kui in advance, King Duan did not hesitate to use the dark line in the palace, in order to pull the new general Pingbei under his command and make up for the shortcomings of the military strength of the generals of the Duan Wang Party in one fell swoop.

However, the result was not satisfactory, and the white eunuch came back to tell him, although Yan Kui said a lot of good things to him, he still politely refused King Duan.

For this reason, King Duan was very disappointed for a while, but fortunately, he did not succeed on his side, and King Jing did not gain anything from Yan Kui, which made King Duan breathe a sigh of relief.

I didn't agree to win over myself, and I would think of a way in the future, I was afraid that Yan Kui would defect to King Jing, and that would be a major blow to the Duanwang Party.

As long as Yan Kui remained neutral and did not throw himself on King Jing's side, King Duan could endure his defeat.

Afterwards, although King Duan did not stop fighting, he did not force Yan Kui to express his position.

Return to the capital. Emperor Liyang ordered Yan Kui to take charge of the army, and King Duan thoroughly understood that today's Yan Kui is not what it used to be, and it is no longer something he can easily woo.

After all, with 80,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, Yan Kui can completely wait for the price to sell and maximize his interests.

Therefore, although Duanwang's desire for Yan Kui has reached a new level, he will no longer expect Yan Kui to take the initiative to join his command.

However, the idea of King Duan had just risen, and Yan Kui made a big move to get married to Princess Duan.

Duan Wang can compete with King Jing, and he is supported by many ministers, naturally he is not a mediocre person, he can see what Yan Kui means, this is to keep in touch with him without being too close.

Although Yan Kui deliberately made things ambiguous, Duanwang was not very angry, he obviously felt from this letter that Yan Kui was biased towards himself in his heart, otherwise he would do this more.

This discovery made Duanwang's heart extremely excited, Yan Kui's current power needless to say, 80,000 horses may not be nothing to the imperial court, but it can be said to be a rain from heaven for Duanwang, who is suffering from no military support in the battle for succession.

At the critical moment, with the help of Yan Kui's 80,000 horses, a big deal can be decided.

……………

Thinking of this, King Duan attached a little more importance to the letter in his hand, and he turned around and seriously explained to Princess Duan.

Let her draft a reply to Huang Wei'er, and then prepare some gifts, not too expensive, but with sincerity and affection.

Princess Duan knew the importance and replied seriously: "I will prepare carefully." ”

Duanwang nodded, planning to meet Chen Liuzi, but he felt that this was too solemn, so he had to dispel this idea, and then secretly asked someone to call a few of his henchmen to discuss this matter.

Yan Kui's wife's diplomacy, how should he deal with it, so as to better win people's hearts............