How many days of tranquility could he have in his life? Finally, there was such a night, but this night was so short. At dawn, Shen Ruoyu woke up suddenly, and it was time for the dynasty. He got out of the quilt that was warmed by Nangong Qiuyan, and the cold air of the winter night hit his face, making him reluctantly shudder.

Zhengcunba, Li Jinglong once said that southerners can't stand the bitter cold of Beiping, but now, he, a Beiping person, can't stand the clammy cold of the south. Who said the South was warm? This cold night is three times colder than Beiping. No matter how bad it is, the strong north wind in Beiping is blocked from the house, and a stove is heated in the corner of the house, and the cold air in a room can drive away most of it; Unlike this southern winter, where there is a damp cloud everywhere, even if there is no wind, it is like a wall of ice with four walls, and there is no difference between inside and outside.

He recalled that in the grove outside the city of Beiping, the river was thick with ice, and nightshade walked back and forth; There is also the time when the night is in the mountain - facing the fierce north wind to practice the sword, the sword is as cold as ice, and the face is also frosty, but the whole body is hot, from head to toe in the veins, the blood of pride is boiling enthusiastically with the sword dance. But now, in this winter in the south of the Yangtze River, he shrunk up and got dressed, walked out of the door lazily with the silent autumn breeze, rode a second-rate son who was as languishing as him, and walked slowly towards the palace on the one hand, while feeling that his mind seemed to be frozen, he was inactive, he became dull, his limbs were decadent, and the cold had frozen to the bone marrow.

The morning court was as cold and lifeless as the sky outside. Nothing major; After retreating, the genius lit up. Zhu Yunwen wholeheartedly approved the recital for two hours, and sat in front of the imperial case without moving. Then, the eunuch Shan Shou came in with lunch, stepped forward and said cautiously:

"Your Majesty, it's time for dinner."

Zhu Yunwen raised his head and looked at the winter noon sun outside, and asked:

"Have you prepared a meal for Lord Overseer?"

Yamashou replied, "According to your will, I sent it together." ”

"Put it here," Zhu Yunwen lowered his head and continued to criticize his recital, without looking at Shan Shou.

As soon as Shan Shou was about to retreat, the guards at the gate of the Qianqing Palace hurriedly ran into the hall and played:

"Your Majesty, there is a person outside the Chengtian Gate who asks to see the Son of Heaven, and the person who comes claims to be the messenger of King Yan."

"Messenger of the King of Yan?" Zhu Yunwen paused, and his cheeks immediately turned white. He thought for a moment, sighed, and said:

"Bring it with you."

After a while, a Yan soldier came up to the temple, saw the Son of Heaven, did not bow or kneel, took out a letter from his bosom, and said loudly:

"Yan envoy Wusheng, on the order of my king, I specially sent it to ask for a rebellion."

Zhu Yunwen was stunned when he heard this; Shan Shou, who was standing beside him, said:

"Be bold against the thief; How not to kneel in front of the Temple of the Son of Heaven? ”

Zhu Yunwen frowned, glanced at Shanshou, and said coldly:

"There's no place for you to talk here; Why don't you quit yet? ”

Shan Shou didn't expect that he would be counted down by the emperor instead, so he had to retreat in disgrace.

Zhu Yunwen said: "Since there is a letter from the Fourth Emperor Uncle, let's submit it." ”

There are no eunuchs left in the palace; Shen Ruoyu saw that there was no one, so he walked down the steps of His Majesty, walked to Wu Sheng's side, and went to pick up the music in his hand.

But unexpectedly, when Wu Sheng saw him coming, he retracted his hands suddenly, hung arrogantly to his sides, didn't look at Shen Ruoxiao, and said with his head held high and disdainful:

"Please allow Wu Sheng to hand it over to the emperor himself; Wu Sheng can't let the hands of this shameless villain stain our king's recital. ”

Zhu Yunwen was taken aback, and said in a trembling voice: "Presumptuous, he is the imperial guard appointed by me. ”

Shen Ruoyu was speechless for a while; What can he do, he is called self-inflicted.

If he couldn't bear it, there would be no need for him to talk about ideals and sacrifices. He smiled bitterly, shook his head, and said:

"What you think is your business; Defending the emperor is my business. How could I possibly let you get close to the Son of Heaven as a Yan soldier? ”

Wu Sheng was unmoved: "The emperor disagreed, Wu Sheng took his leave, our king negotiated peace, but the emperor didn't want to see it, it's not that our king is not sincere." The 350,000 Yan army is heading south in the near future, and it will not be something that a small ungrateful imperial guard can resist at that time. ”

Shen Ruoyu said even more firmly:

"Then please go back. Messenger Wu, who do you think you're talking to? Just now, it was said that it was a rebellion, but now it has become a peace; There is no reason for a vassal king to blaspheme the heavens with such an impertinent recital; What's more, your Yan King has long been deposed as a concubine. It seems that your Wusheng is just a small thousand households, and you are so rampant in front of the Son of Heaven, it can be seen that there is no Son of Heaven in the eyes of your King Yan for a long time; Why do you need to use the pretense of 'appeasement'? You go back and talk nonsense, see if he Yan Wang came with a master, or cut down your thousand households in public. ”

Wu Sheng turned around and was about to leave; Zhu Yunwen hurriedly shouted to him, and said to Shen Ruoyu:

"Forget it, if there are few, a thousand households, you may not know the words, what do you care about him. After all, it is the letter of the Four Emperor Uncles, and it should be taken by the nephew himself. ”

Shen Ruoyu stopped him and said sharply: "Your Majesty, have you forgotten that he is no longer your imperial uncle?" He is now a commoner, a heinous thief, how can the dignified son of heaven be so low in front of the thief? ”

Zhu Yunwen looked at him hesitantly.

"But, how can I not read the peace recital?"

Shen Ruoyu said coldly to Wu Sheng: "You go back and tell your king that since it is a peace, ask him to send someone who knows the number of rites." ”

That Wusheng has reached this point, he is hard and afraid of the horizontal, and probably thinks that it is not good to return to his life just like this, and under the banner of King Yan's "Jing Nan", he will inevitably be punished, so he softened and said:

"That being the case, Wu Sheng's rudeness is the first, and I am here to compensate the guards, and ask the Son of Heaven to forgive me."

He handed the letter into Shen Ruoyu's hands stupidly.

Zhu Yunwen read the letter, his face became more and more pale, and the hand holding the letter was trembling constantly. Then he put the letter on the case, covered his forehead, and could not say a word.

Seeing this, Shen Ruoyu picked up the piece and read it from beginning to end, and couldn't help but laugh dumbly. It turned out that King Yan took advantage of the victory of the Battle of Beiping to put pressure on the imperial court, and on the one hand, he exaggerated the situation of the Beiping War in the letter, and on the other hand, he was repeating the old tune of "Jingnan", stating that he had "no choice" to raise troops in order to "avenge his father" and "clear the monarch's side".

As for the list of "traitorous ministers", needless to say, Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and other civil servants are naturally on the list. What made Shen Ruoyu feel funny was that the officials of the Tai Hospital, the officials of the Ministry of Rites, including the funeral officials, the officials who supervised the construction of the filial piety tomb, and other officials were also listed, and there were even the sick old palace people in the palace and all the internal officials who accompanied him when Emperor Gao was in his prime.

Obviously, King Yan wants to do the topic of "Jing Difficult" to the end no matter what. He knew very well that Emperor Jianwen would not be able to meet his demands, so he had no worries about putting himself in a dead end. On the contrary, the threat behind the guise is the real purpose of the Yan King:

"The minister asked for 350,000 elite soldiers, and went straight to Beijing to ask for it. If the ministers arrive in Beijing, they will be thousands of miles away! ”

This sentence frightened the gentle Zhu Yunwen. Shen Ruoyu put down the concerto, looked at the Son of Heaven with some helplessness, and asked:

"Your Majesty?"

Zhu Yunwen came back to his senses, looked at him tremblingly, then looked at Wu Sheng who was waiting for His Highness, and sighed:

"Well, I know; Go back first. ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "Your Majesty, you just let him go?" ”

Zhu Yunwen asked hesitantly, "What do you mean?" ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "Lock him up first." ”

Wu Sheng sneered and protested loudly: "The two armies are fighting, and they will not be killed." Is Shen Jianjun timid? ”

Shen Ruoyu smiled: "Did I say I was going to kill you?" - Escort him down. ”

When the Imperial Forest Army outside the hall heard the order, they came in and couldn't help but say that they had escorted Wu Sheng out.

Zhu Yunwen sighed and said, "Ruoxiao, what's the use of you locking him up?" In case it angers the Four Emperor Uncles, it is not counterproductive. ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "I want to detain him for some time, and then return the letter to him and let him go back." ”

"Give him back the letter?" Zhu Yunwen was a little strange; "That'...... How should I reply to the Four Emperor Uncles? ”

"This in itself is a reply," Shen Ruoyu said, "whatever he wants; If he has the ability, he will come over. You can rest assured, Yan Jun is by no means that capable. Of course, our side must be prepared, and Mei Juma must be strictly careful in Huai'an to hold the Yellow River defense line. General Li's garrison in Dezhou, as well as the defenders of Zhending and Cangzhou, should strengthen ties and be on guard day and night. ”

Zhu Yunwen said hesitantly: "I still think that I must give an explanation to the Fourth Emperor Uncle. After all, in the first battle of Beiping, it was us who lost miserably. The loss of 100,000 troops in the first war, and the general trend will go in the third battle. Since the Fourth Emperor Uncle has played the banner of 'Jing Nan', he should not force me to a dead end. If we can make a truce, I should make some concessions. ”

"Concessions, how are you going to make them?" Shen Ruoyu said: "You know that these conditions he mentioned are impossible to do. You know that this is just a cover for him, and he deliberately wants to put forward these impossible demands in order to achieve his goal of not ceasing troops. Your Majesty, there is no possibility of negotiating with him, you should stop having such illusions, and it is the right thing to be really ready to fight. ”

He was really merciless in his criticism. Zhu Yunwen's face immediately turned red. He whispered:

"In this way, Ruo Xiao, you go to Wenyuan Pavilion, the Military Department and Taichang Temple, and invite Mr. Fang, Qi Aiqing and Huang Aiqing over to discuss together."

"What about Lord Wei Guogong?"

"Master Taifu......" Tianzi hesitated, "You don't need to call him, you can just do it." ”

Shen Ruoyu was slightly taken aback; He didn't speak again, turned around and walked out of the main hall, and hurriedly ran towards Wenyuan Pavilion, secretly complacent.