In the blink of an eye, it was the day of the Double Ninth Festival. Early in the morning, Wang Jing came to the bamboo house, asked Shen Ruoliao to get up, and followed them up the mountain. Shen Ruoyu didn't want to see anyone, especially afraid that Yuan Hui and Nangong Qiu would ask him about returning to Beiping again. He said that he was uncomfortable, but he couldn't deceive Wang Zhenren's eyes, so he dragged him to the ground, dragged out the door, and together with Yuan Hui and Nangong Qiu, who were waiting outside the door, they took the osmanthus cake and chrysanthemum wine that had already been prepared, and climbed to the top of the gold together.

They lingered a long time on the golden top. Huandan Zhenren took out the guqin that went up the mountain, sat in the wind, and improvised a song on the qin, but for a while, the four of them had the feeling of "thinking about flying with joy and wanting to go to the blue sky to catch the sun and the moon". They sat on the ground, sipping sweet cakes and wine together, and the infinite scenery of the top of Wudang was unobstructed in front of them.

Wang Zhenren was full of interest, took a sip of wine, and said leisurely:

"Since ancient times there has been gin,

"Those who get this taste are rare.

"Only health and nationality,

"And I know it." [1]

Yuan Hui smiled at his granddaughter and said, "Qiu'er, Wang Zhenren is chanting poetry again." You have a song, too; The good poems of the Chung Yeung Festival, you know more than your grandfather. ”

Nangong Qiu said casually:

"Alone in a foreign land as a stranger,

"I miss my family every festive season.

"Brother Distant Knowledge,

"There is one less person in the dogwood. [2]

"Grandpa, why don't we have dogwood?"

Yuan Jue laughed: "Dogwood is in your wine, don't drink it quickly." ”

"Grandpa, you're lying, it's clearly chrysanthemums in this wine!"

Wang smiled and asked, "Ruoxiao, Qiu'er, do you know the origin of the Huandan Zhenren Humanity?" ”

Shen Ruoyu shook his head. Nangong Qiu shouted to listen.

Wang said leisurely:

Taibai's poem "Lushan Presents Lu Shi Yu Xuzhou", the last eight sentences, is the favorite of Poor Dao's life:

"Idle peeping at the stone mirror clears my heart,

"Xie Gongxing's place is mossy and gone.

"Morning clothes are still Dan without love,

"The heart of the piano is in the beginning of the three-fold road.

"Seeing the immortals in the clouds,

"Hand hold Hibiscus towards Yujing.

"The sweat of the early days is all over the nine,

"I am willing to take Lu Aoyou Taiqing!"

Shen Ruoyu lowered his head, fiddled with the wine glass in his hand, and looked at the chrysanthemums soaked at the bottom of the glass.

The eight lines of Taibai's poem that Dan Zhenren had just sung made him feel uneasy inexplicably. Only then did he notice that on the strings that Dan Zhenren had just stroked, a chrysanthemum was inserted at some point.

Chrysanthemum wine in the hand - why chrysanthemum?

What is a chrysanthemum? Huang Chao once sang chrysanthemum like this: "When I stay on September 8 of the next year, I will kill all the flowers." Zhu Yuanzhang, the old emperor who had just died outside the mountain, also wrote a song of chrysanthemum when he raised an army against the Yuan: "Hundred flowers hair, I don't send it, if I send it, I should kill it." If you want to fight the west wind, you will wear golden armor all over your body. Zhou Dunyi said: "Chrysanthemum, the hermit of flowers"; The strange thing is that the emperor who even became a monk just shook a shot, fought the world, and finally ascended to the top of the Ninety-Five, Hu Lan Dang case killed forty or fifty thousand people in one go, just by virtue of this, he can shine in the history books, how can he also take a fancy to the chrysanthemum of the hermit?

"If you are far away from the rivers and lakes, you will worry about it." The body is outside the dust, and the heart is not outside the earth. Isn't that so? In fact, every hermit is like this, isn't Tao Yuanming the same? Chrysanthemums are always and everywhere. Even the four great monks and master Daoyan can assist King Yan and get involved in court affairs; Jumping out of the Three Realms, Huandan Zhenren, who is not in the Five Elements, is far away from the rivers and lakes, but it seems that he is inextricably linked with the government and politics all the time, and his heart is higher than the sky. Who is he and what is he doing? Deep down, what do you really think?

At this time, Yuan Jue suddenly spoke:

"Ruo Xiao, do you know that something big happened to the imperial court. King Zhou was demoted. ”

Before Shen Ruoyu could react, Nangong Qiu shouted:

"King Zhou was flattened? Who is so powerful that he dares to beat King Zhou? ”

Wang couldn't help but laugh. Yuan Jue smiled:

"Degrading, degrading, my little aunt; Even if someone really dares to beat King Zhou, it is the king of heaven; Who dares to use such a word to talk about the family affairs of the Son of Heaven? ”

This is what happened last month, and it has only now reached Wudang Mountain, or is it because Wang Zhenren and Yuan Gaoren are well-informed. Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, who sat in Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty, was deposed as a concubine by the newly enthroned son of heaven and the former emperor's grandson, and his family was exiled to Menghua, Yunnan. According to the imperial court, the king of Zhou behaved misbehaps, and there were several conspiracies, and the Son of Heaven had to make this decision based on the "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" made by Emperor Taizu, and it was by no means intended to hurt the feelings of flesh and blood, but it was precisely in order to maintain the family affection and unity of the imperial family, hoping that the princes of all parts of the domain would take warning.

Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, is the fifth son of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, and the only remaining half-brother of Zhu Di, the king of Yan. Zhou Wangye is tireless in learning, outstanding in writing, good at words, and quite accomplished in herbal medicine. Among Zhu Yuanzhang's more than 20 sons, there are not a few people with outstanding talents, such as Zhu Zhen, King of Chu, Zhu Zi, King of Tan, Zhu Chun, King of Shu, Zhu Bai, King of Xiang, and Zhu Quan, King of Ning. Among them, especially the King of Ning, the King of Shu and the King of Zhou. However, compared with King Shu and King Ning, Zhu Hu is far inferior to his two younger brothers in self-discipline. The last time Shen Ruoyu went to Kaifeng, he had already seen King Zhou's style, and privately summarized Liang Tiehan as naïve and willful; And the temperament of Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, can indeed be summarized as such. He was uninhibited and unbridled—as a prince, I am afraid it is difficult not to do so. However, this prince of Zhou is even very amorous, because he fell in love with a palace maid surnamed Tian in his palace, he was too infatuated, and he even wanted to abolish his original princess Feng, and even the eldest son Zhu Youlian who was born to him with Feng also suffered, so he had to take the position of Zhu Youlian's son and give it to Zhu Youlian, the son born to Tian.

Even if it is an ordinary family, there is an insurmountable distinction between the concubines, not to mention the noble blood and the prince's family; What's more, King Zhou's original concubine Feng was not an ordinary woman, but the daughter of Feng Sheng, the founding father and the great general of Song Guogong. Zhu Yuanzhang registered Feng Sheng's daughter as the princess of Zhou, and he named the daughter of Chang Yuchun as the crown princess, Deng Yu's daughter as the princess of Qin, Xu Da's daughter as the princess of Yan, and the daughter of Lan Yu as the princess of Shu. As a result, the naïve King of Zhou thought that he could act recklessly, which not only angered his old father-in-law Feng Sheng, but also angered his father, Zhu Yuanzhang. The old emperor summoned the king of Zhou to Beijing, scolded him all the time, and gave the unlucky Tian family to death, so that Zhu Hu finally understood what price he had to pay while enjoying the privileges of the prince, and the matter of seizing the heir was counted.

However, the lessons of this incident were obviously quickly left behind by Zhu Hu. He continued to live as he pleased, perhaps too smart, and learned how to bury himself in the flowers and herbs and the sheng song and female music prematurely, unlike his eleventh brother Zhu Chun, the king of Shu, although he loved books as much as his life, but he never forgot the political affairs and public affairs of the fiefdom, and widely taught him inside and outside, which was quite praised; He is not like the kings of Chu, Xiang, and Ning, while loving literature and art, he also has the same strong hobby of martial arts hunting, often wielding swords and swords, training his own pro-army as a pastime; He is not like his fourth brother Yan Wang Zhu Di, who regards his fiefdom as a country, assumes the responsibility of governing the country and leveling the world like the Son of Heaven, carefully governs this land, does everything personally, works hard, sits on the northern frontier of the Ming Empire, has great military achievements, and is famous all over the world. Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, just read his scriptures and histories wholeheartedly, wrote his poems, raised his flowers and plants, enjoyed his wine and beauty, ignored other things, let his fiefdom Kaifeng Yellow River burst, let the people of the city live in poverty, and did not forget anything in his heart, but just lived his own life.

However, he lost his calculation after all, and never thought that even though he was so bored and spent his life without any interest, he was still labeled as a "conspiracy" by his own nephew, who was twenty-two years old, and took away the title of the prince. Prior to this, Wang Han, the chief historian of the Zhou Palace, couldn't stand Zhu Hu's unruly behavior, and had repeatedly admonished the prince to be cautious and restrained, but to no avail; Wang Han seemed to have expected something, and suddenly pretended to be crazy one night, ran out of the Zhou Palace, dancing and singing, and never appeared in this world again. A few days later, Li Jinglong, the Duke of Cao, suddenly led a large army to surround the palace of the king of Zhou, loaded the entire furniture of the king of Zhou into a prisoner's car, and escorted him to Beijing.

After a short period of fright, Zhu Hu quickly calmed down, and in the main hall of the Jinshen Palace, he crusaded against Zhu Yunwen, the nephew of the Son of Heaven, with tears in his eyes, and then calmly obeyed his order to send himself to the Zongren Mansion for deliberation, and then was once again put in a prison car and escorted to distant Yunnan.

Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, who was sitting in the prisoner car, was very proud, almost a little arrogant. He was very sober, he knew his own weight, he knew the purpose of everything, and he saw through the young genius's extremely clumsy move but he thought he was very clever. He was the most unproductive and insignificant of all the princes, and he never had any ambitions and posed the slightest threat to the throne. However, it was he the king of Zhou who became the first prince to be deposed; He knew in his heart that compared to the king of Chu and the king of Xiang, who were strong in martial arts and ambitious, he was simply not worth mentioning, but Zhu Yunwen never had the courage to take down the king of Chu and the king of Xiang first, and he did not dare to touch the king of Ning, who was "80,000 with armor and 6,000 leather cars", and held the brave and warlike Duoyan Sanwei Mongolian cavalry, although Zhu Quan, the king of Ning, was more ambitious than other princes, well-informed, and well-read military books, and his martial arts were as superb as the level of making articles. And the one who really poses the biggest threat to the throne is Zhu Di, the king of Yan, which is a fact that everyone in the world unanimously acquiesces, but the young son of heaven does not show the slightest reproach to this fourth emperor uncle; On the contrary, in order to abolish the King of Zhou, Zhu Yunwen specially wrote a letter to King Yan, explaining the origin and process of the incident to the four emperor uncles, and repeatedly said that all the crimes were committed by the king of Zhou alone, and had nothing to do with other princes, and the court would not be innocent; Zhu Yunwen has always regarded family affection as more important than everything, and will do his best to maintain the unity and integrity of the family, please rest assured.

In fact, not only Zhou Wang Zhu Hu, not only other princes, not to mention the Yan King Zhu Di who has always been vigilant - everyone in the world can see clearly that Zhou Wang Zhu Hu does not have any special "conspiracy", and taking the Zhou King is nothing more than an example to knock on the mountain and shock the tiger, because the King of Zhou is the only remaining half-brother of Yan King Zhu Di. Zhu Yunwen took King Zhou as a starting point and opened the curtain of his cutting of the domain, and his drunkard meaning still lies in his real heart - the Four Emperors' Uncle Yan Wang.

The throne was smoothly transferred; The people who sat on the throne and the kings of the four sides did not feel safe, and one side was afraid that the uncles who were heavily armed would rise up and rebel and seize the throne, so they began to cut the domain; The other party was even more panicked, all coveting the throne, but they were afraid of the army of the imperial court, afraid of the notoriety of usurping rebellion, and even more afraid of King Yan, but at the same time, it was difficult for them to do Taoguang and Mingzhe to protect themselves, because the most innocent King of Zhou had become the first victim of the cutting of the domain, and all the princes with heavy troops were in danger.

King Zhou and the fourth brother King Yan originally stood very tightly, much closer than the eldest brother Prince, the second brother King Qin and the third brother King Jin; Seeing through this and understanding that he was the first to be stabbed for the fourth brother, Zhu Hu was also relieved, he had just wiped his tears in front of the emperor, and in a blink of an eye, he happily embarked on the road to Yunnan. He seems to firmly believe that one day, he can come back, one day the fourth brother can make his grievances not in vain, and one day the fourth brother will repay him.

Yan Wangye, who is far away in Beiping, how does it feel to watch his younger brother exiled thousands of miles away at this moment? What kind of countermeasures did you come up with for this not clever but really fierce move of the imperial court?

Shen Ruoyu didn't care much about King Zhou; The only thing he thinks about is his second brother Liang Tiehan and Yan Wang Zhu Di. King Zhou was exiled, what happened to his second brother and sister-in-law? Will they be exiled together? Or do you want to find another way to make a living? The people of Peking all respect Lord Yan and hope that King Yan can become the emperor; Master Dao Yan vaguely had this intention. However, what exactly does the prince himself think? The conversation in front of the map, Shen Ruoyu remembered it vividly throughout his life; The prince is very ambitious, and he should not be willing to let the throne fall into the hands of his nerdy nephew; However, when he proposed that King Yan should inherit the throne, the prince clearly criticized himself for being full of nonsense.

Is it necessary for the prince to be so cautious in front of his own territory and his cronies? Shen Ruoyu didn't think that he could be regarded as a close confidant of King Yan; Especially in the past three months, he is even more unsure of what he is in the eyes of the prince. However, since Yao Biao had always been worried about Master Daoyan's disagreement with him, it was obvious that even Lord Yao and Master Daoyan didn't know what the prince really thought. Didn't Luo Yang also say that for King Yan, whether he is the son of heaven or a prince, it is the same - it can be seen that the prince has never revealed any of his thoughts to the person he trusts and relies on the most.

Yuan Jue saw him sitting there in a trance, and asked:

"Ruo Few? Worried about King Yan? ”

Shen Ruoyu came back to his senses, shook his head, and said vaguely: "No...... The wine was too cold......"

"This move of the imperial court is completely for the king of Yan to see," Yuan Heng continued, "No wonder Master Daoyan suddenly wrote to me in a hurry to invite me over—Beiping must have gotten the news in advance." Politics is like playing chess, the court has already taken the first step, and King Yan seems to be silent, but he may not be left behind; The real decisive decision lies in how many moves the game has come on the chessboard in the hearts of both sides. ”

"Senior, is there anything for warm wine in Taihe Palace? The wind is so strong, I can't drink this. Shen Ruoyu absentmindedly rubbed the wine glass in his hand while constantly looking around.

"I don't know how the battle in Luchuan is going." Wang Jing ignored him and only immersed himself in the discussion with Yuan Hui.

"With Mu Chun leading the troops, there is nothing to worry about," Yuan Hui only smiled normally, "Not long ago, I heard that Dao Gan Meng was beaten all over the ground by Mu Chun and begged to surrender to the imperial court, but the former emperor rejected him, and he wanted to kill him." Dao Ganmeng could only resist stubbornly. The Son of Heaven had handed over all the military power of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Shu to Mu Chun, and ordered him to launch a general attack. Presumably, now that the troops of the three places have been assembled, the deployment strategy should be in place, and the troops should be dispatched. ”

Huandan Zhenren looked up at the sky, squinted his eyes, and said thoughtfully:

"Mu Chunzhen is a young and handsome man, just like his father back then. Yunnan has its own Mu family to guard, and the imperial court has always been able to sit back and relax on the southwest frontier; Becoming the cause of this descendant for thousands of generations, I should be the first monument of Wei Guogong and Xiping Hou in the Ming Dynasty, so that future generations will admire. ”

Xu Danai, the Duke of Wei, was the first founding father of the Ming Dynasty and a well-known first general in the world; Half of the rivers and mountains north of the Huai River in the Ming Empire were basically fought by him and Chang Yuchun. Xu Da is especially known for his steadiness in the use of soldiers, and whenever he gives an order, he must be thoughtful and love soldiers like children. The official history records: "The words are concise and concise. In the army, the order is the only one. The generals are dignified, and the emperor is as respectful as he can't speak. Good follow, with the same joys and sorrows, all of them are grateful to die, so they are to Kejie. In particular, the army is strict, the capital is two, the provincial capital is three, the county is hundreds, the Lujing banquet is ran, and the people are not bitter soldiers. On the day of returning to the dynasty, the bicycle was abandoned, the Confucian students were prolonged, and the discussion was all day long. "The wind of a general is unmatched. Outside the battlefield, the general Xu Da is even more famous all over the world; Although his achievements are high, he is still diligent and thrifty, loyal, and jealous of evil. When Hu Weiyong was the prime minister of Zuo, he often directly admonished this person in front of Zhu Yuanzhang for being a traitor, having a conspiracy, and being lawless. Hu Weiyong was deeply disturbed, and once bribed the general's family Fushou with a lot of money, and wanted to make friends with Xu Da, but was denounced by Fushou instead. For a while, everyone in the world knew that even the general's disciples were so upright and honest, not to mention the general himself. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang praised Xu Da and said: "Ordered to come out, successful and spinning, unreserved, women have nothing to love, treasures have nothing to take, the integrity is flawless, the sun and the moon are clear, and the general is just one person." ”[3]

After Xu Da died of illness, Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply saddened, dropped out of the dynasty for it, ordered the whole country to mourn, and posthumously named Xu Da as the king of Zhongshan, Wu Ning, worthy of enjoying the Taimiao, and the temple of meritorious heroes, ranking first. The descendants are hereditary dukes of Wei.

Xu Da's descendants are also very young. The second of the four sons died early, and the other three sons were all important ministers of the imperial court: the eldest son Xu Huizu, the heir to the Duke of Wei, had counted Shaanxi, Beiping, Shandong, and Henan to train troops, and later served as the Governor of the Left Governor of the Chinese Army. The third son, Xu Yingxu, is the governor of the Chinese army and the hereditary commander. The fourth son, Xu Zengshou, was the former military governor of the left capital. The three daughters are all princesses, the younger daughter is married to Anwang Zhu Ying, the second daughter is married to the acting king Zhu Gui, and the eldest daughter is the princess of the famous Yan King Zhu Di. The Xu family is noble and promising, and it is very much that people can look up to.

Wang Jing's juxtaposition of the exploits of Xu and Mu is very reasonable. Mu Ying is the most favored adopted son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of Gao, Zhu Yuanzhang and the Empress Dowager Ma of Xiaoci Gao treat him as his own, and his relationship with several older brothers Prince, King Qin, King Jin, King Yan, and King Zhou is also like brotherhood, and because there is no dispute over the succession to the throne, it is closer than these princes to each other. Mu Ying followed his father Zhu Yuanzhang to fight in the north and south, under Zhu Yuanzhang's careful training, both civil and military, both ability and political integrity, not only able to lead troops to fight, but also good at handling political affairs, many times followed under the command of the generals Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Tang He, Feng Sheng and others, gradually stood out, repeatedly made military exploits, grew into a senior commander in the army, is Zhu Yuanzhang's right-hand man, more promising than several elder brothers. In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang worshiped Yingchuan Marquis Fu Youde as the general of the expedition to the south, Lan Yu, who was still the Marquis of Yongchang at that time, was the deputy general of the left of the expedition to the south, and Muying, the Marquis of Xiping, was the right deputy general of the expedition to the south, and sent a large army to conquer Yunnan and included Yunnan into the territory of the Ming Empire. After the battle in Yunnan, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Fu Youde and Lan Yu to return to the court, but ordered Mu Ying to stay in Yunnan and guard Yunnan.

It is easy to fight the country, but it is difficult to defend the country. When Mu Ying was guarding Yunnan, all local affairs were handled in person, regardless of the details; Customized agricultural and mulberry taxation, dredging the floods of Dianchi Lake, passing through salt wells for business travel, and allocating the people to work hard to govern the territory of Yunnan in an orderly manner, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. Zhu Yuanzhang has countless adopted sons, all of whom have conquered cities and territories for him, and they have all become the defenders of one party; However, in a border area like Yunnan, where ethnic minorities live together, contradictions are prominent, and there are rebellions from time to time, it is not easy to defend the town, and it is particularly difficult to govern, but now it is stable and prosperous. Zhu Yuanzhang was greatly satisfied, and praised that among all his adopted sons, only Mu Ying had the greatest merits; This statement is not biased.

Mu Ying is a calm and resolute person, a good and virtuous person, diligent and thrifty, benevolent, likes to read, and is deeply supported and admired by the military and the people in the country, and the Quartet Yi people return to their hearts. Initially, because of the death of Empress Xiaoci Gao, Mu Ying was grateful for the kindness of her adoptive mother and cried until she vomited blood, and it is said that she fell ill from then on. Later, the crown prince Zhu Biaoxue died, Mu Ying and her brother had a deep brotherly relationship, and in the midst of grief, the old disease recurred and died. There was a mourning voice in Yunnan, "the soldiers and civilians cried in the alleys, and the people were all runny." When Zhu Yuanzhang heard of his death, he was also grieved, and ordered him to be buried in Beijing, posthumously crowned the king of Qianning, and enjoyed the Taimiao with Xu Da.

Mu Ying's four sons. At the age of sixteen, the eldest son Mu Chun followed his father to the west to conquer Tibet, then from Yunnan, and from Pingjiang Xikou. Zhu Yuanzhang granted him the post of governor of the military capital, and the ministers asked for a try, but Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Son, my family, don't try." "Give real lectures on the spot. Mu Chun, like his father Mu Ying, was kind and benevolent, and the prisoners he recorded in prison were often lenient. After Mu Ying's death, Mu Chun took his father's title as the Marquis of Xiping, and at the same time inherited his father's responsibility to guard Yunnan. During this period, there were several small-scale rebellions in Yunnan, and Mu Chun's command was determined to quell the rebellion in a few days. The soldiers are like gods, and they are no different from their father Mu Ying.

In the thirtieth year of Hongwu, Luchuan Xuanfu made Si Lunfa and his subordinate Daogan Meng discord; Daogan Meng then drove away Si Lunfa and rebelled. It was the largest national rebellion in years. Zhu Yuanzhang worshiped Mu Chun as the former general of the conquest, and Shuai He Fu and Xu Kai crusaded against the rebels. Mu Chun planned carefully, opened victoriously, pursued all the way, defeated the enemy, and won many victories. The traitors surrendered one after another, up to 70,000 people. His soldiers wanted to slaughter all the soldiers, but Mu Chun strictly forbade it. Daogan Meng was defeated and surrendered to the imperial court, but Zhu Yuanzhang thought that Daogan Meng was innocent of death, and rejected his surrender, and ordered Mu Chun to launch a general attack with troops in Yunnan, Guizhou and Shu. At this time, Mu Chun was thirty-six years old.

Yuan Hui told Nangong Qiu about the history of these heroes; The three of them were in high spirits and arguing. Shen Ruoliao sat silently on the side, but her mood was extremely depressed and depressed; Later, he began to complain that the wind was blowing and giving him a headache. Wang was shocked to see that the sun had passed noon, and the wine and food had been eaten, and finally decided to stop the topic and go down the mountain to their rooms to rest. Shen Ruoliao breathed a sigh of relief.

********

[1] Bai Juyi, "To Gin"

[2] Wang Wei, "Memories of Shandong Brothers on September 9th"

[3] History of the Ming Dynasty? Biography 13