In the 31st year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, died of illness in the palace of Emperor Yingtian. The edict said:

"I have been in the Mandate of Heaven for 30 years, and I have been anxious and diligent, and I have been diligent every day to benefit the people. Nai is from a humble beginning, without the knowledge of the ancients, good and evil, not far away. Now we have the natural principle of all things, and there is a sense of ridicule and sorrow. The emperor's grandson Yunwen is filial piety, the world is in the heart, and it is appropriate to ascend to the throne. Internal and external civil and military ministers work together to assist the government to reassure our people. Funeral rituals, no gold and jade. The mountains and rivers of Xiaoling are not changed because of this. The subjects of the world, crying for three days, are all relieved, and there is no harm in marrying. The kings are in the kingdom, and they do not go to the capital. Those who are not in the order will be pushed to do so. ”[1]

In the leap May Xinmao, the twenty-two-year-old imperial grandson Zhu Yunwen was on the throne in the Yingtian Emperor's Palace, and buried Zhu Yuanzhang in the Purple Mountain Filial Piety Mausoleum, Emperor Gao, and the temple name Taizu. The imperial court sent envoys to the palaces of the kings and officially read out the edict of Taizu and the enthronement of the new emperor. When the imperial envoy arrived at the residence of the king of Shu in Chengdu, Shen Ruoliao had already left Chengdu for four or five days.

The personal soldier who reported the news was one of the subordinates sent by the King of Shu in Beijing, so that the Beijing division could come back at any time to report any situation. His own people always spread the news faster than the imperial envoys. Shen Ruoyu looked at Zhu Chun's grief-stricken appearance, and felt very sad. Politics is still far away from him, and he never thought that Zhu Yuanzhang's death would have an impact on his near future. However, he also had the experience of losing his father. Right now, seeing the dignified King of Shu lying on the ground crying bitterly, he couldn't help but sympathize with this talented prince who was famous in the southwest, but he couldn't think of anything to comfort Zhu Chun. He picked up the king of Shu from the ground, and asked the soldier who reported the news:

"Are you sure, not hearsay? If it's wrong, you're going to lose your head. ”

"I am sure of it; The court has been mourned, and His Royal Highness the Imperial Sun will ascend the throne soon, and he should be the new emperor now. The imperial envoy arrived in a few days. ”

After the soldier finished speaking, he raised his head and glanced at it, and saw that Shen Ruoliao was just a cloth cloth, and couldn't help but be very confused, and cautiously glanced at the King of Shu who was supported by Shen Ruoliao, lowered his head, and stopped talking.

Shen Ruoliao looked at Zhu Chun; The simple-minded King of Shu has been carried away by grief and is still crying. Everyone around the gate of the palace looked at the prince at a loss, not knowing what to do.

Shen Ruoyu sighed and said to the soldier, "Do you have any other tasks?" ”

The soldier was slightly stunned. He was puzzled in his heart, but he was intimidated by Shen Ruoxiao's composure, and bowed his head and said, "No; The subordinates rushed back to Chengdu overnight from Yingtian, just to report to the prince. The subordinates are only responsible to the prince. ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "Then you go back quickly and have a good rest." ”

Then he said to the coachman, "Get rid of it." ”

Then, he helped Zhu Chun and walked into the palace. Lanterns have been lit up everywhere in the palace. The people at the gate of the Shu Wangfu closed the gate of the palace, and together with Shen Ruoxiao, they sent Zhu Chun, who was unsteady on his feet, back to the bedroom, handed it over to the surprised Princess Shu, and watched her beckon the attendants around her to help the prince to the bed and lie down.

The princess of Shu was born with clear facial features, thick eyebrows and big eyes, very beautiful, with a bit of man's calm and free courage and heroism, learned that the Son of Heaven died, the king of Shu lost his father, after being surprised, he quickly calmed down, ordered his subordinates to boil water and pour tea, served the prince to wash his face and rest, and the palace immediately wore filial piety and mourned, and all affairs were in the chest, arranged in an orderly manner, and nothing was omitted. Then, she ordered someone to take some banknotes and send them to Shen Ruoxiao, and said unhurriedly:

"Your Highness has had a great time with you in the past two days; Today's incident happened suddenly, thanks to you for escorting His Highness back. I will thank you for these coins on behalf of Your Highness. Be careful when you go on your way back to-morrow; Your Highness is too sad, I'm afraid I can't send you off. ”

Shen Ruoyu looked at Princess Shu and was speechless for a while. He had long heard that Princess Shu's father's surname was Lan, and she was the daughter of the famous Liangguo Gong General Lan Yu. He looked at her resolute appearance, and the unfazed and commanding expression between her words, as if he could clearly see the shadow of Lan Yu in his imagination, the world-famous handsomeness and arrogance of Liang Guogong, and the style of a general who commanded troops on the battlefield; He had no doubt that in the face of such a general, and the hundreds of thousands of troops he had brought out over the years, how the once invincible and brave Mongolian iron cavalry had been defeated again and again, and even fled in despair; Even the famous destruction of the pass, the terrain is dangerous, and the Ming Dynasty's own guards are only unwilling to open the door in the middle of the night to let General Lan enter the pass, and the proud and frivolous General Lan actually gave an order to lead his soldiers to forcibly rush through the pass, and the impregnable Xifeng Pass with an iron wall was broken in an instant, and it was smashed under the iron hoof.

Because of this incident, Zhu Yuanzhang has cast a lingering shadow in his heart. A general is invincible to such a point - the terrible thing is that he has such an invincible capital, you must know that Xifeng Pass is not something that anyone who wants to rush through, not to mention that he Lan Yu demolished the entire Xifeng Pass - he holds the military power of hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands, and one day he rebels, so how can he get it.

Despite this, Zhu Yuanzhang still warmly greeted General Lan, who was victorious in the Northern Expedition to Fishing, held a ceremony in the Fengtian Palace, awarded meritorious service, and became the Duke of Liang Guogong, and in front of hundreds of civil and military officials, he declared: "This Wei Qing and Li Jing are also here." ”

This is the highest honor that a military general can receive. Lan Yu was obviously confident enough to think that he was about the same as Wei and Li, and he was not grateful for receiving the emperor's highest reward. He went his own way, continued his usual arrogant style of General Lan, and spoke out at the celebration banquet. Zhu Yuanzhang euphemistically criticized him for not exercising power and self-dictatorship, and for being the master and deposing the generals and soldiers without playing to the imperial court. Lan Yu said disdainfully, the general is outside, the king's order is not affected, the fighter must not be delayed, and the general should be judged to be decided, so as to establish prestige. Zhu Yuanzhang blamed him for not being arrogant and indulgent, he heard a report that after Lan Yu attacked the Yuan camp, he captured the concubine of the Northern Yuan monarch, and saw that he was born rich and beautiful, and suddenly became lustful, and forced him to sleep in his own tent that night, and the Yuan concubine was humiliated and hanged herself the next morning. When Lan Yu heard this, he was so angry that he asked the emperor where he had heard the slander from others, and he was going to break that person's body into ten thousand pieces. Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely dissatisfied, and severely reprimanded Lan Yu, and at that time changed the title "Liang Guogong" to "Liang Guogong", handwritten "Liang Guogong" to him, and ordered someone to engrave Lan Yu's many mistakes on the iron coupons given to him.

However, what really made Zhu Yuanzhang murderous happened after the celebration banquet.

The old emperor wanted to talk to General Lan about the military situation in the northern frontier in private, so he asked the others present to leave. As a result, all the imperial guards, eunuchs, and palace maids quickly left cleanly, but the soldiers who returned from the northern expedition remained in the main hall without moving. Zhu Yuanzhang felt strange, so he said again, I want to discuss some things with Liang Guogong, you go down first. Unexpectedly, the lieutenant generals and partial generals under General Lan still did not react, as if they had not heard the emperor's orders at all.

Zhu Yuanzhang was confused, but Lan Yu said lazily at this time: You guys go down first. Those partial generals listened to General Lan's order, and immediately got up and left the table and walked out of the main hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked by the scene in front of him; He never imagined that his supreme emperor of the dynasty, the founding emperor of the empire, fought in the south and the north, and in the end his majesty in the army was not as good as his own general; In front of Lan Yu, he seemed to be just a big banner, a façade, and a puppet, nominally the emperor, but no one obeyed his orders. These are all high-ranking generals in the army, second only to Lan Yu in rank, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of ordinary soldiers; In their eyes, there is only General Lan, and there is no Son of Heaven.

For the monarch, it was intolerable; If Lan Yu's order just now was not "You guys go down first", but "Kill this emperor, I'll do it", then wouldn't he be going to die at that time without a place to be buried, and the throne of Jiangshan that he had worked so hard to get would have easily changed his surname to Lan.

Since then, the final tragic fate of Lan Yu, the general of Liangguogong, has become a foregone conclusion. However, although Zhu Yuanzhang has always been resolute, he is extremely cautious in this matter. After all, he was afraid of the hundreds of thousands of troops in Lan Yu's hands. In addition to this, the situation on the border is not very stable; There are rebellions in the southwest and northern Xinjiang, and he also needs this general who can fight well to clear the portal for him.

After the Northern Yuan Mongolia was defeated by Lanyu in the fishing sea in the 21st year of Hongwu and suffered a great loss of vitality, the situation in Northern Xinjiang was calm for four years, and it was broken again in the 25th year of Hongwu. Jianchangwei commanded Yuelu Timur to raise the banner of rebellion, and the rebel army grew rapidly and soon became out of control. At this time, Lan Yu had already cleared the rebellion of ethnic minorities in the southwest and northwest. Zhu Yuanzhang once again appointed him as the general of the conquest and led his division to conquer the desert. Yuelu Timur heard Lan Yu waving his master, and fled in fright. Lan Yu smashed Jianchang directly, fought Kejie in a succession, and forced Yuelu Timur to run for his life. The army pursued the victory, and a few months later captured Yuelu Timur and completely wiped out the rebels.

During this period, a series of changes occurred in the Ming court: the crown prince Zhu Biao fell ill; Zhu Yuanzhang's favorite adopted son, Xiping Hou Muying, who was far away in Yunnan, died of illness; Zhu Yunwen was established as the emperor's grandson; Mu Ying's son Mu Chun was awarded the title of Marquis of Xiping and continued his father's duty to guard Yunnan; In addition, even the case of Hu Weiyong's rebellion, which has lasted for 12 years, continues to expand, and more officials have been implicated and sentenced.

The situation in the border can be regarded as basically stable at this point, and Zhu Yuanzhang no longer has any worries. He ordered Lan Yu to return to Beijing, but ordered hundreds of thousands of troops to stay in the border fortress and let General Lan come back alone. Zhu Yuanzhang greatly praised Lan Yu's outstanding merits and promoted him to be the crown prince, but appointed Feng Sheng, the Duke of Song, and Fu Youde, the Duke of Yingguo, as the prince and the prince. Lan Yu clearly perceived the emperor's indifference and suspicion towards him, but the general was arrogant by nature, how could he be appeased, and complained unabashedly: "I am not worthy of the Taishiye! Zhu Yuanzhang knew about it, and gritted his teeth even more.

At this time, it was only two months since he was secretly accused of rebellion by Jinyiwei and arrested and imprisoned.

Later, as soon as Jiang Xuan, the Jinyi Wei became famous, and the Duke of Liang finally went to prison and exterminated the nine clans. The arrogant General Lan was tortured in the Imperial Prison, and then put to the execution ground, where he was executed with 3,600 knives - General Lan's daughter finally escaped because she was the princess of Shu and became the only survivor of the Lan clan. Right now, Shen Ruoyu looked at the princess of Shu sitting in front of her, and deeply felt that she had not only inherited her father's beauty, but also retained her father's pride and perseverance in the depths of her blood and bone marrow; He didn't know how this woman felt after experiencing the tragedy of the whole family being beheaded, his father was charged with forming a party for personal gain, plotting rebellion, and suffering inhumane torture. Although she has a kind attitude in front of her, she is obviously cold, and between her speech and demeanor, she can't hide her innate arrogance, and even some coldness.

Shen Ruoyu excused himself and said: "The princess has tormented me; The prince has already rewarded us with a lot of money, and it is useless, and Ruo Xiao is already very ashamed in his heart. Please take back the money. ”

The expression on Princess Shu's face did not change in the slightest, and she still said politely and coldly: "The prince rewards the prince, and I reward me." You don't have to excuse yourself, I know whether you should receive these rewards or not. ”

Shen Ruoyu thought of Liang Guogong's inexplicable rebellion and tragic end, and couldn't help but feel deep sympathy for Princess Shu in her heart, at this moment, this princess's pride and ruthlessness seemed to show her strength and perseverance, whether it was superfluous for a woman or not, it was an indispensable noble quality for a general like Lan Yu; He suddenly felt that the ice-carved Princess Shu was shining, and even her pride and coldness were awe-inspiring.

This stubborn pride eventually forced him to give in and accept the bounty. He said goodbye and left the Shu Wangfu and returned to the Baxiang Inn. Along the way, he has been pondering, Lan Yu alone, implicated more than 20,000 people to die with him, no less than Hu Weiyong's conspiracy to sit and die; Even if Lan Yu never rebelled, aside from his military power, he did have too many faults to give people a handle, and it can be said that he was not completely innocent. However, no matter what, this has nothing to do with him Shen Ruoliao after all, why is he so unrelenting about such an unattainable character?

The difference between the King of Shu and his princess Niangniang is really huge enough. He hadn't seen Princess Yan yet, and he didn't know what that princess looked like; However, he knew that Princess Yan's father was Xu Da, the king of Zhongshan, who was the first founding father of the Ming Empire, and was a great general who was even more powerful than Lan Yu, the Duke of Liangguo. Unlike Lan Yu, although Xu Da, the king of Zhongshan, was as accomplished as the master, he was able to die a rich and good death because of his humility and prudence. Princess Yan herself has a very good reputation, and I heard that her personality is as quiet and accessible as her father Zhongshan Wang, who loves to read, and is known as a female showman. King Yan and the princess have always been affectionate and respectful to each other.

The next day, the two of them went on the road back to Beiping. They walked to Shunqing, took a boat down the Jialing River, entered the Great River in Chongqing, and soon arrived in Jingzhou; They went ashore in Jingzhou and passed through Xiangyang.

When he arrived in Xiangyang, Lao Shi relaxed, casually Shen Ruoyu went out to play for two days, and turned around the places of interest and historic sites outside the city of Xiangyang. Lady City, Fancheng, Longzhong, Lumen Mountain, Mi Fu Temple, Du Fu Tomb...... The famous places that he could only see in books before, all jumped out alive and displayed in front of him, allowing him to play to the fullest.

The next day, after sunset, he returned to the inn. Lao Shi had already ordered the wine and food, and sat in the room waiting for him.

"In the afternoon, someone came looking for you." After he sat down at the table, Lao Shi spoke.

"Looking for me? What kind of people? ”

"I won't say my name, I just want to see you. is not tall, Luo Guo is very powerful, has a Shuzhong accent, and is dressed as a fortune teller. ”

Shen Ruoyu was slightly stunned: "Black face, short mustache, early thirties, and a scar on the right eyebrow?" ”

"You know him?"

Shen Ruoyu said: "When I was visiting the Wuhou Temple, he told me my fortune. ”

"You Wuhou Temple?" Old Shi frowned. "When did you go to the Wuhou Temple?"

Shen Ruoliao blushed. On the afternoon of the second day of the Shu Palace, he was led by Mr. Shizi Shi Zhengxue to visit the Wuhou Temple. Accidentally, he almost slipped out.

He said, "It was the teacher of my friend's house who took me there. ”

Lao Shi sneered and said, "Good boy; Leave me alone in the inn and go to the famous places by myself. Since it was arranged by Lord Yao personally, if he doesn't let you say it, you'd better not say it, and I don't want to know. Tell me, though, who is that fortune teller? ”

Shen Ruoyu shook his head: "I don't know him, when I came out of the Wuhou Temple, he stopped me at the door, and he had to tell my fortune." ”

"What did he say?"

"He said that if I don't do it within a day, there will be a plague of blood."

The expression on Lao Shi's face made Shen Ruoyu very funny.

"Brother Shi, don't tell me you believe this too."

"I don't believe this," Lao Shi opened his mouth solemnly, "If it's just a warlock who is indiscriminate, intercepting tourists in front of the Wuhou Temple and opening his mouth is just to cheat money, it doesn't matter." But he would never chase all the way from Chengdu to Xiangyang in order to cheat money. There must be something strange in this. ”

He took out a note and placed it on the table.

"This is what he asked me to give you."

Shen Ruoyu picked up the note and opened it. There are only two simple lines on it:

Tomorrow afternoon, Madame is in the city. Hope to come alone, fortunately do not doubt.

He looked up and glanced at the old stone.

"Brother Shi, this note ......"

"I didn't look at it." Lao Shi guessed his question. "You don't have to tell me. No matter what is written on it, I have only one sentence: the fortune teller must have something strange; It's better to be careful. ”

Shen Ruoyu thought about it, folded the note again, and put it in his arms.

After eating, he said, "Tomorrow before noon, I will go out." Come back in the afternoon. ”

Lao Shi did not agree immediately. He pondered for a moment and said:

"Tell me where you're going. After two hours I did not see you returning, I went to seek you. ”

Shen Ruoyu thought for a while and said, "It's okay." I'm going to Lady City, it won't be long. It will be all right, and in two hours I will be back. You can rest assured. ”

********

[1] History of the Ming Dynasty? The Third of the Chronicles》