Chapter 116: Hanyuan Palace

Zhu Yuan was a scholar who had taken refuge from the north, and because he had written an article discussing the military affairs of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Chen Jue, who had occasionally seen him, regarded him as a useful talent, so he promoted him to the Privy Council as a six-rank outsider. Although the official rank is not big, Chen Jue can be regarded as having a little affection for Zhu Yuan after all.

Zhu Yuan is a talented and knowledgeable person, and he has high expectations for himself, and he also hopes that he can paint the Lingyan Pavilion (the Lingyan Pavilion was specially built by Li Shimin, and it is painted with an image of 24 heroes who have won the world). He was originally a rootless wanderer in the Southern Tang Dynasty, but fortunately he met Chen Jue and was exceptionally promoted. "Jin Lin is a thing in the pool, and he becomes a dragon when he encounters a storm", he thought that Chen Jue was a Bole who knew thousands of miles, how could he know that after Chen Jue promoted him, even if he was ordered to do some daily small things, sort out documents or go to various places to inspect armaments. I don't know if Chen Jue was too busy with work, or for some other reason, since Zhu Yuan entered the Privy Council, he seemed to have completely forgotten Zhu Yuan.

Today, in April, Zhu Yuan, who heard that Ma Yun had implemented a new policy in Yuezhou and was inspecting armaments in Wuchang, carefully analyzed the current situation, and he was keenly aware that there would definitely be changes in Yuezhou, so he was unwilling to be lonely and wrote to the emperor and suggested to him to increase troops in Wuchang, Yuanzhou and other places, so as to observe the situation in Chu and wait for an opportunity to move. I don't know if Li Jing saw this recital, but after it dragged on for a long time, the privy envoy Chen Juecai sent Zhu Yuan to Yuanzhou to inspect the armaments. Zhu Yuan happily went to Yuanzhou, but he stayed for more than half a year, and there was no more follow-up between the imperial court and Chen Jue. Zhu Yuan watched Ma Yun destroy Nanping by surprise, but he could only be in a hurry, in vain.

When Chen Jue became a greeting envoy and accompanied Ma Yun to Jinling to marry his daughter-in-law, Zhu Yuan couldn't wait to meet Chen Jue once and reported his work to him, which meant to ask Chen Jue when I would return to Jinling. As a result, Chen Jue didn't seem to hear the sound outside the strings, so he sent Zhu Yuan out directly.

Zhu Yuan was inevitably a little unhappy about this, and it was easy to wait for Chen Jue to send troops to Fuzhou and Jianzhou, and the privy deputy envoy Cha Wenhui signed an order to let Zhu Yuan return to Jinling. When he was in Yuezhou, under such a dangerous situation, he talked and laughed at Ma Yun and retreated calmly. Now that he has been photographed for no reason in a place like Yuanzhou where birds don't, he has stayed for more than half a year, and after such a setback, Zhu Yuan, who is arrogant, will inevitably be a little "complaining" about Chen Jue. On the way back to Jinling, I happened to meet Song Changling, the king of "complaints", "Those who are close to Zhu are red, and those who are close to ink are black." Song Changling was full of complaints all day long, and after such a long time, Zhu Yuan couldn't help but cater to one or two sentences.

It's not the one who said Shangguan behind his back, throughout the ages, it was too much, and the normal can't be in the normal ordinary thing. It's a pity that he is unlucky, he is unlucky, this is related to the royal family, and he is very unlucky to be heard clearly by the big man of the dynasty.

Knowing that Zhu Yuan was in prison, Ma Yun's mind came alive. He hadn't heard of Zhu Yuan's name, but he admired Zhu Yuan's insight, and the main reason why there were many thousands of horses in history that did not run out of the world record and left deep footprints in human history, isn't it because there is no Bole? Ma Yun admires Zhu Yuan very much, but he is in prison, and it is difficult to get him out without leaving a trace.

In the lobby of the Criminal Department, Ma Yun listened to the trial and thought of a way to cross the sky and get Zhu Yuan to Chu State. It turned out to be really thought of by him. He pretended to be furious, and strongly demanded that Song Changling be handed over to the State of Chu by the Three Law Divisions, and he would personally send it down. The right to judge is an important symbol of the country's autonomy or indiscretion, and even if Song Changling committed a great crime, the Three Law Divisions and the Li Tang Imperial Court would not agree to this request. This is called the sky-high asking price, and the next thing is to pay back the money. Seeing that they didn't agree, Ma Yun proposed to ask for this Zhu Yuan, and the three law divisions thought about it and agreed.

This is not strange at all, because Song Changling and Zhu Yuan, these two people have different statuses in the slander and curse case, Song Changling is the mastermind, or the son of the patriarch Song Qiqiu, everyone is staring, this person must be punished in Li Tang; And Zhu Yuan is not even an accomplice, and no one will notice him.

Princess Mingle is about to marry Ma Yun, and Li Tang wants to give away a lot of dowries and people who serve Princess Mingle, so that Zhu Yuan can be sentenced first, and he will be reduced to slavery, just as one of the dowries, and reward Ma Yun with him. In this way, it not only does not lose the face of Datang, but also meets Ma Yun's requirements, which is really the best of both worlds.

After achieving his goal, Ma Yun also pretended to be angry, and walked out of the criminal department angrily, knowing that he would be in his carriage before he could laugh heartily. Sun Sheng, a group of fools, probably couldn't guess Lao Tzu's intentions.

Along the street, after walking about two or three hundred meters, there was a fast horse galloping behind, seeing that it was about to catch up with Ma Yun, the rider in green clothes on the horse shouted: "Lord Wang, please stay." There are important things to report to the subordinates. ”

Li Ergou turned his head and glanced at it, and the person chasing after him signaled to stop the carriage, then ran outside the carriage and said, "Lord Wang, the person who guarded Wang Jichang is back." ”

Ma Yun's heart sank, and he hurriedly lifted the curtain, jumped out of the carriage, and asked the rider urgently: "But have you heard the news of Lin Renzhao and Brother Lin?" ”

Last time in Miaoyin Temple, if Lin Renzhao hadn't jumped out to help him, now even if Ma Yun doesn't die, it is estimated that he won't be able to get out of bed. But Lin Renzhao jumped out, but instead "exposed" Wang Jichang, who wanted to take advantage of the crowd and get rid of his heels, and wanted to take the opportunity to sneak back to Jianzhou. Ma Yun was afraid that Wang Jichang would vent his anger on Lin Renzhao, so he specially sent someone to Wang Jichang's residence to secretly monitor them.

But Wang Jichang was put under house arrest by Li Tang, and there were people from Li Tang's Ministry of Rites and Jinling Mansion watching outside, and Wang Jichang's mansion inside was not small, and it was quite difficult to figure out what was going on inside. So, it's been seven or eight days before I figure out what's going on.

The rider in green clothes jumped off the horse early, handed the reins to a guard, and walked two steps quickly and bent down to bow down, Ma Yun took a step forward, grabbed the rider, and urged: "But I know the situation of Brother Lin." "Lin Renzhao, you must not have an accident.

The rider peeked at Ma Yun, who looked anxious, and didn't dare to show his merit at the moment, saying how much he had spent, how much money he had spent, how many mouths he had worn out, and how many pairs of cotton shoes he had broken, and said directly: "Lord Qiqi, something is wrong." Wang Jichang couldn't escape, he was angry, and vented all his anger on Lord Lin, he beat Lord Lin 100 whips every day, since yesterday, he stripped Lord Lin of his clothes, tied naked under a tree in the middle of the yard, the weather was cold, and Lord Lin was dying. ”

"Ahh

The rider felt that he was being grabbed by Ma Yun's tight sleeves, and he was stunned when he saw Ma Yun's "color", and he couldn't help but secretly worry about his master.

Seeing Ma Yun, he turned around sharply and said to Li Ergou: "Ergou, lead the horse, bring some guards, follow the master, how to break into this Jinling City today and rescue Brother Lin!" ”

So saying, he snatched a horse, turned over, and rode away in the direction where the rider had just come. Li Ergou's roar was left behind him: "Brothers, cheer up and keep up with the prince!" ”

Jinling City contains Yuan Palace.

"Liu Aiqing, it took a lot of time to come back from Wuchang. Huang Hao, give Liu Aiqing a seat. Li Jing said happily.

Liu Renzhan is in his forties, thin figure, prominent cheekbones, eyes are bright, a wisp of black beard under the chin, looks very majestic, this person was born in Jiangmen, his father is Yang Xingmi's fierce general, when Xu Wen usurped the throne, he fell under Xu Wenmen, and when Xu Zhihe (that is, Li Yu) was in power, he also strongly supported Xu Zhihe, so Li Yu also repaid Liu Renzhan and his son, and his favor was good, and he personally appointed Liu Renzhan as the envoy of Wuchang Festival.

Liu Renzhan bowed down and thanked, "Thank you, Your Majesty." As he spoke, he sat down in his seat. In fact, Li Yu treats people generously, respects Confucianism, and values scholars; Li Jing treats scholars even more well, and treats Feng Yansi, Chen Jue, Zhou Zong and others without the slightest arrogance, and often rewards them to sit down and perform, just like friends in cloth. Because of this, the status of Jiangnan scholars is quite high, so after Lu Jiang stole the official silver, he actually swaggered out of the city in a scholar's shirt, and the sergeants guarding the gate did not search (see Chapter 83 for details). But Liu Renzhan was cautious and refused to be polite, just sat in a corner of the chair and listened respectfully to Li Jing's inquiry.

Li Jing saw that Liu Renzhan was respectful and humble, and he was quite satisfied, and he smiled and said, "General Governor, what is the situation there?" ”

"Wuchang is adjacent to the Jin Kingdom and Yuezhou to the west. Now that the Jin State and the Khitan are at loggerheads, they are too busy to take care of themselves, but it is the Chu State, which is quite worrying. Liu Renzhan replied slowly. He didn't know if he didn't know that now Chu and Tang were married and were in the honeymoon period. But as an important minister of the imperial court, how can he deliberately obey the emperor's likes and dislikes when answering inquiries? On the way, he made up his mind to answer truthfully and remind the emperor to pay attention to the state of Chu.

"Oh, hehe" Li Jing smiled, he took a sip of tea, and then asked, "Don't you know, general?" Is Tang Chu marrying and making peace now? The five princes of Chu are about to become my concubines. In this way, what worries the state of Chu. ”

"Your Majesty, I think that my worries about the Tang Dynasty come from this five princes."

Yesterday, Feng Yansi and Cha Wenhui reported to Li Jing on the situation of negotiations with Ma Yun, and one of them was that Liu Renzhan had a gap with Chu State, and he was in Wuchang to strictly investigate the trade affairs between Chu and Tang, and in the past month or so, not a single grain of rice has flowed from Wuchang to Jingnan, so Ma Yun and they have deep complaints about Liu Renzhan, believing that having him in Wuchang will have a bad impact on the relations between the two countries. Now listening to Liu Renzhan say this, Li Jing, who had a preconceived idea, took it for granted that this was Liu Renzhan's selfish intentions, after all, the military elders all had a bad idea for the Chu State. Therefore, he smiled and said: "The general misunderstood, I have seen this Ma Yun, this person is unlearned, vulgar and rude, although he is a little clever, but he is also a mediocre person, don't worry." ”

Liu Renzhan hesitated, and it can be seen from Li Jing's words that Li Jing has a bad impression of Ma Yun, but Ma Yun's methods in Yuezhou and Jingnan make Liu Renzhan always feel uneasy, and he still wants to continue to persuade. Unexpectedly, Li Jing then asked: "Aiqing, I have been guarding the frontier for the country for many years, and I am uneasy, and I am ready to transfer you back to Jinling to take charge of the army." What does Aiqing think? ”

Liu Renzhan bowed down and replied, "Weichen obeys." Seeing that Li Jing had closed the coffin and was determined to reconcile with the Chu State, his mind turned around, and he said: "Your Majesty, when the minister was in Wuchang, he found a talent and recommended it to His Majesty. ”

"Oh, Aiqing, just come. The secretary must be a good person recommended for the country. Who is it? ”

"Your Majesty, he is a member of the Privy Council, Wailang Zhu Yuan. Person... ”

Before Liu Renzhan finished speaking, Huang Hao walked in from outside the door, bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Sun Shengsun, Lord Wei Cen Wei, Lord Jiang Wenwei, the three adults have asked to see you." ”

"Oh, announce them in, Liu Aiqing, don't you know, something strange happened in Jinling recently, someone actually openly slandered the princess and insulted the court." Li Jing said coldly.

Liu Renzhan entered the city yesterday, and he had also heard about Song Changling. However, although he was a minister with Song Qiqiu, he didn't have much communication, so he couldn't speak for him. Liu Renzhan lowered his head and stopped talking.

"Ministers Sun Sheng (Wei Cen, Jiang Wenwei) knock to see Your Majesty."

Li Jing said gloomily: "Get up, give a seat, let's talk about it, how is the trial going?" ”

Jiang Wenwei stood up and said: "Song Changling has already admitted that he slandered the princess, insulted the imperial court, and cursed the Tang Dynasty, and he also admitted that some words were heard from his father Song Qiqiu, and Zhu Yuan, a member of the Privy Council, was his accomplice. Here is their confession. Moreover, after Song Qiqiu arrived in Hongzhou, he was extremely poor and magnificent, and he also rounded thousands of acres of land outside the city, preparing to build a mansion to live in, and the people were unbearable, and there were many fugitives. Here is a list of Hongzhou's civil and military officials. ”

Li Jing glanced at the confession a few times, his face was flushed with anger, and he stood up suddenly: "Hmph, Mr. Jiuhua, it seems that he has a lot of complaints about me, hehe, when the first emperor was here, he relied on the old and sold the old, and he was proud of his achievements, and the first emperor was benevolent and peaceful, and he didn't have the same knowledge as him, and when he came to me, he intensified his efforts and wanted to take advantage of the situation to suppress the master?" Passing the decree, doesn't he like to retreat to Jiuhua Mountain? Just find him a place in Jiuhua Mountain and let him live there forever?"

When Li Yu was alive, although he reused Song Qiqiu, but in order to prevent Song Qiqiu's dictatorship, he also suppressed him once, but Song Qiqiu got angry, fired the boss Li Yu's squid, ran to Jiuhua Mountain, and called himself 'Mr. Jiuhua', and later Li Yu asked the crown prince Li Jing to personally pay Jiuhua Mountain to invite, and Song Qiqiu came out of the mountain; when Li Yu died, he degraded Song Qiqiu again, and this guy ran to Jiuhua Mountain again, Li Jing had no choice but to send his younger brother, the imperial brother Li Jingsui to invite him personally. These two times, half of them were forced by the situation, this Song Qiqiu is indeed talented, and he also has a bit of power among the hundred officials; The other half is to gain a reputation for knowing people and making good use of them, just like King Yan set up a golden platform, to do a political show. But from the bottom of his heart, Li Jing was already quite dissatisfied with Song Qiqiu.

And now, he finally couldn't help but hit Song Qiqiu to the end.

Liu Renzhan, who was bored with his eyebrows lowered, was taken aback, not for Song Qiqiu, but for Zhu Yuan, this person is a great talent, but he doesn't know what crime Zhu Yuan has committed, how deeply involved he is with Song Qiqiu, and he doesn't know what to say for a while to save Zhu Yuan.

Jiang Wenwei continued: "Your Majesty, the crime that the ministers have against Song Chang Ling is to send Yong'an Prison to work as a slave, and Zhu Yuan will never be used and will be a slave. ”

"Song Changling is the most evil, how can it be just a matter of distribution." Li Jing said, this guy actually ruined his daughter's reputation, he really deserves to be killed.

Sun Sheng stood up, bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, the ministers originally thought that they should be sentenced to death, but... He glanced at Liu Renzhan and stopped talking.

Liu Renzhan felt tired in his heart, and he didn't dare to sit down anymore at the moment, got up from the chair, and bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, please retire." ”

Li Jing glanced at Liu Renzhan and said, "Liu Aiqing, go home first and rest for a few days, and then train the pro-army for me." ”

Seeing that Liu Renzhan was gone, Sun Sheng continued: "It's just that the five princes of Chu State are arguing in the lobby of the Criminal Department, and Song Changling must be handed over to them Chu State to deal with." The ministers thought that Song Changling could not be handed over to the Chu State, and Song Changling could not be executed. ”

"Of course Song Changling can't be handed over to Chu State, but why can't he be executed?" Li Jing said a little puzzled.

Wei Cen jumped out and said: "Your Majesty, Song Qiqiu has been a prime minister for many years, and there are many students and former officials under his disciples. The ministers thought that Song Changling, although he deserved to die, could not be executed, otherwise, it was inevitable that some people would say that my Tang Dynasty was forced to execute Song Changling because of the pressure of the Chu State. ”

Sun Sheng said: "Moreover, the first emperor and His Majesty treated the scholars generously, and the people of the world all felt His Majesty's grace. They also don't have any concrete actions. After all, Sun Sheng was unwilling to kill with his words.

Li Jing groaned for a moment, nodded, and asked again: "If you don't go to Song Changling, what should you do if Ma Yun and them are held accountable?" ”

Wei Cen looked at Sun Sheng, who had an upright face, this guy looked down at the ground and ignored the stubble at all; And Jiang Wenwei, who hadn't said a word since he entered Hanyuan Hall, seemed to be asleep, squinting his little eyes and turning a deaf ear. He "licked" his mouth and said: "The master of the horse begged Song Chang to be fine, so he strongly asked to hand over Zhu Yuan to him, and the ministers felt that Zhu Yuan was not the mastermind of this case, and it seemed that he could be reduced to a slave, and as a person who served the princess, he would be rewarded to Ma Yun." To succeed or not to succeed? Your Majesty, please. ”

Li Jing wrote poems, which were thoughtful word by word, extremely patient, but he could deal with state affairs, so he was quite impatient. When Li Jing first became the emperor, he said that all government affairs would be handed over to Feng Yansi, Chen Jue and others, and the emperor's younger brother Li Jingsui would supervise the country. I wanted to hide from the harem to engage in literature well, and it was Zhou Zong who met them with death at that time to "force" Li Jing to take back his life. Wei Cen's words sounded like Li Jing had an idea, but he thought about the road well, and with Li Jing's laziness on state affairs, he would think of other ways at that time.

Sure enough, Li Jing agreed.

At this moment, Huang Hao came in from outside the door again and said, "Your Majesty, Mrs. Zhou is here to see you." ”

What's going on today? This person came together in waves.