Xiao Yan was regarded as the emperor by Hou Jing and placed under house arrest in the East Palace, and the defenders of the entire Donghua Gate were guarded by Song Zixian's relatives, and ordinary people could not enter the East Palace at all. Xiao Zhengde led the new empress and the crown prince Xiao Yizheng into the palace, and Hou Jing's residence was in the palace, nominally to guard Xiao Zhengde and prevent people with ulterior motives from attacking the emperor, but the real intention was to monitor and control Xiao Zhengde.

Most of the ministers in the court were killed by the rebels, and a small number of famous and high-ranking princes and nobles and families were hiding in their mansions, and Hou Jing recruited them out by bus in the name of Xiao Zhengde and Xiao Yan to help maintain law and order in Jiankang and stabilize the mood of the people.

In the Qinzheng Palace, Xiao Zhengde was on the dragon chair in high spirits, with four big characters written on his face. On the left side of the hall stood the royal faction such as the King of Hedong, the King of Yueyang, the Duke of Anyang and the King of Nanping, and on the right side were the faction of ministers such as the General, the Six Books of Shangshu, and the Imperial Historian. There are more than thirty people in total. These gratifying people were all invited by Hou Jing to preside over the affairs of the court.

Xiao Zhengde was about to get up and start discussing politics, when Zhu Yi hurriedly approached and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, the Great General of the Universe has not yet arrived, please wait patiently." Xiao Zhengde looked at him very angrily, and also said in a low voice: "I am now the emperor, how can I wait for a minister to come before I can start the early court deliberations?" Zhu Yi said very respectfully: "Because he is the Great General of the Universe, Your Majesty should wait a little longer." Xiao Zhengde's face turned green, what is this called? The dignified son of heaven still has to look at the face of his subordinates?

At this time, the attendant sang loudly at the gate of the temple: "The general has arrived!" The ministers turned sideways in two columns, ready to greet Hou Jing, only to see the fully armed warriors outside the hall lined up in two columns and stood in the corridors on the left and right sides, and then Hou Jing, who was wearing battle armor, walked in with more than a dozen generals who showed off their might.

Hou Jing didn't even take off his shoes, and strode into the hall, carrying a sword weapon. This is simply a complete contempt for imperial power, if there were ministers in the Xiao Yan Dynasty who dared to go to court so early, it is estimated that the nine clans would have been punished long ago. It's a pity that at this time and that time, the real master of the entire Jiankang and even the entire Jiangdong at this time is him Hou Jing, who dares to say that he is not?

The ministers on both sides were frightened by Hou Jing's appearance, and they knelt at his feet, this is the ministers visiting him! Hou Jing tried his best to keep his body balanced and waved his hands from side to side to make them all get up, as mentioned earlier, Hou Jing was a cripple, and his left and right feet were of different lengths, so the Jiangnan people gave him a nickname: lame Hou. This nickname is very popular among the people in the Jiangdong area, but in the Jiankang area, no one dares to call it that.

Even Xiao Zhengde had to get up and stand up to greet Hou Jing, because even Zhu Yi, the new eunuch in charge of the inner palace, knelt down at the foot of the steps. At this moment, no matter how dissatisfied Xiao Zhengde was in his heart, he could only accept the reality that Hou Jing was more "popular" than him. This Southern Liang Emperor is not as face-saving as the Eastern Wei Emperor. But Xiao Zhengde has no desire to give up his rights, he firmly believes that Hou Jing supports him as emperor, at least for now.

Hou Jing's seat was on the right side of the emperor, and Zhu Yi asked someone to bring a chair and spread it on the cushion, which was Hou Jing's exclusive seat. The emperor's previous court was able to sit and accept the bowing of the ministers with him, which was a joke that no one had ever seen before. Xiao Zhengde knew that now was not the time to lose his temper with these things. So he got up and said, "I know that the general's legs and feet are not good, so I specially asked Zhu Yi to prepare a chair for our great hero, which can be regarded as a kind of praise for his loyalty and bravery. ”

Hou Jing was very taboo about others mentioning his physical disability, at this moment Xiao Zhengde said such things in front of the ministers, he was murderous in his heart, and he wanted to step forward and immediately stab Xiao Zhengde in the heart, but he couldn't do this, so he pretended not to care and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty." Immediately, the big lama sat down in his seat, and Zhu Yi on the side was so frightened that his face turned pale, because he saw that Hou Jing's right hand was out of the sheath at that time. It would be an endless nightmare to splash the new emperor's blood on the first day of the dynasty.

At this time, in Zhu Yi's heart, he also regretted very much that he helped Hou Jing enter the palace, and since Hou Jing's army entered the city, the entire Jiankang was shrouded in a terrifying dark cloud. But there was no turning back when he opened the bow, and he had no way back from the moment he opened the Guangmo Gate, and since then he has been completely infamous as a traitor to the king and a traitor.

When Zhu Yi was stunned, the little eunuch on the side reminded him softly: "Lord Zhu, you can start the early dynasty." At this time, he suddenly came to his senses, and hurriedly sang loudly: "The emperor is in the early dynasty, and he has something to do, and he has nothing to retreat from." The ministers agreed, and then bowed to Xiao Zhengde. Then he stood up and was silent, and the whole hall was as quiet as a tomb, which made people panic.

Seeing this, Hou Jing got up and said to Emperor Xiao Zhengde: "Your Majesty, the minister has a plan to play." Zhu Yi hurriedly walked over and caught Hou Jing's recital, and then quickly handed it to Xiao Zhengde. Xiao Zhengde looked at his recitals and asked very casually, "I don't know what happened to Aiqing?" Hou Jingdao: "The ministers support Your Majesty to lead the troops into Beijing, clear the Xiaoxiao has been completed, and return to the court Ningsu, it is the time to retire after success, and go to Your Majesty to allow the ministers to return to their hometowns." As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the upper and lower halls.

The ministers naturally hoped that Hou Jing would hurry up, because it was he who brought the war that burned the entire Jiangdong region, and the richest areas of Southern Liang were all reduced to battlefields, with tens of millions of houses and property losses, more than 100,000 dead and wounded people, and countless people displaced. The people had no place to survive, there was no food in the countryside, and they all flocked to the metropolis, but the area around Jiankang had long been full of wars, and where there was a place to accommodate refugees, many people went into the forest to rob or join the rebels of Hou Jing to fight against Hou Jing, and those who could survive on their own moved their families to central Fujian or Guangzhou-Guangdong regions in the south.

Xiao Zhengde also hoped in his heart that Hou Jing could hand over the military power and go back to the north by himself, but he also knew in his heart that the reason why he could have everything today stemmed from Hou Jing's support, without Hou Jing or Hou Jing's support, he would be beaten back to his original form, fortunately it was good to be his Xifeng Marquis, and if he didn't get it to be settled by Xiao Yanqiu, he would even lose his life. So he was very conflicted, but at this moment, Hou Jing absolutely couldn't leave. Immediately put down the fold in his hand, got up and walked to Hou Jing's side, and said movingly: "The general has made meritorious contributions to the restoration of the Society, and his prestige has spread far and wide, and I am on the right side at the beginning, it is the time to employ people, how can you abandon me?" ”

Today, Hou Jing directed and acted in this play by himself to see the thoughts of Emperor Xiao Zhengde and the ministers, he knew that he was a cruel, greedy, bloodthirsty demon in the eyes of these people, so before taking Jiankang and seizing the supreme ruling power of Southern Liang, he needed to know how these people thought of his rebellion, and then deal with it in a targeted manner.

The ministers also didn't say anything, wanting to see how he played Hou Jing. This kind of little trick of retreating into advance and trying to protect oneself is like child's play in the eyes of these old oilmen, they have long been tired of playing, but no matter how much they look down on Hou Jing in their hearts, they don't dare to show it easily, after all, the knife handle is in the hands of others, so the people present at that time held back a smile in their hearts and watched how the two sluts of the monarch and the minister acted with each other.

Hou Jing got up and said to Xiao Zhengde with tears in his eyes: "Your Majesty can still remember the old minister's actions from the dragon, the old minister is already satisfied, but now people in the world think that I Hou Jing has selfish intentions and wants to be greedy for heaven, and the minister is burdened by fame and does not want to bear this kind of unwarranted infamy, and I hope that Your Majesty will be sympathetic to the old minister." Xiao Zhengde remembered the scene when the two of them raised troops to rebel and make a bloody alliance, and immediately said: "Aiqing doesn't have to care about those gossips, as long as you and I are united in hating the enemy, there is no mountain range in this world that we can't cross." After saying this, Xiao Zheng took Hou Jing's hand and turned to look at the ministers in the palace.

Xiao Yu, the king of Hedong led by the royal family, took the lead in expressing his position, and immediately knelt down and kowtowed and said loudly: "The minister is willing to follow His Majesty's left and right, and the sword mountain and the sea of fire will never give up." Seeing this, several other members of the royal family could only follow the promise, and then the minister's faction also changed banners and switched to Xiao Zhengde under the leadership of General Shangzhuguo, so that the entire court was full of pro-Hou Jing's forces.

Hou Jing struck the iron to ask the royal family and ministers to offer oaths and hostages, and in the name of saying that everyone needed to send their families to the palace to celebrate the new emperor's accession to the throne, in fact, it was to ask for hostages. At that time, the ministers in the palace had no choice but to sign the oath, Hou Jing was very happy to see it, and suggested that Emperor Xiao Zhengde give amnesty to the whole world and celebrate together, and promote a large number of meritorious ministers and Conglong faction, and there are also a few people in the surrender faction who have achieved high official ranks, such as Xiao Yu and General Shangzhuguo, as well as Xiao Yan's former henchman and later renegade Zhu Yi, who also jumped from a fourth-rank official to a second-rank official.

In the summer of this year, the whole Jiankang finally got up from the lifeless hell, showing a trace of vitality, the whole Jiankang City was full of lights and lively, and the people on the street came and went to buy and sell, in fact, these are all disguised, it is Hou Jing ordered the ministers in the city to dress up as small merchants and hawkers to create an illusion, the night after the lights go out, the whole Jiankang City is like a dead city, every household closes the door, no one dares to walk on the street after the first shift, and even the Qinhuai River, which is extremely fragrant on weekdays, has died down.

On this day, Hou Jing held a meeting of sergeants in the army, preparing to meet several Qinwang's divisions that were about to move. Hou Jing sat in the hall very leisurely in civilian clothes, on both sides were the generals with neat military appearances, Song Zixian held the helmet in his left hand, pressed his sword with his right hand, and was talking endlessly about the military situation in front of a military map. Hou Jing yawned boredly with earwax, he was too late with a few concubines in the palace last night, and he had no energy at the moment, and he couldn't concentrate on listening to the military report.

Guo Yuanjian lost no time in saying to everyone: "Everyone, although we currently occupy the right time and place, and the emperor is in our hands, we must not take it lightly, that Xiao Duo is by no means a mediocre person, and Chen Baxian of southern Gansu, he has repelled the troops sent by our army to take over the local troops, and at this moment it seems that he is planning to go north, this person is the son of Chen Xianda, it is said that the cultural and martial arts are very powerful, and he can't help but be on guard." "All the generals have made a promise.

Hou Jing only asked at this time: "Where is that Chen Xianda at this time?" Ren Yue hurriedly got up and replied: "Chen Xianda and Yang Kan father and son are now in prison, waiting for the general's fate. Hou Jing heard that Yang Kan's father and son were also captured, so he got up and sat upright and said, "There is such a thing, take me to the prison to see." ”

Jiankang's prison is near Xizhou City, at that time Jiankang's outer city distribution is like this, the north gate is Xuanwu Lake, Xuanwu Lake to the north is the mausoleum of the emperors of the previous dynasties, the north gate is the north Chi Road, the left side of the road is the residence of King Jingling, the right side is Zhu Yi's residence, and the road goes directly to Guangmomen, which can fully show how much Xiao Yan loves Zhu Yi, and Zhu Yi's house was another favorite of Xiao Yan earlier. So Zhu Yi can easily open the Guangmo Gate.

The west of Jiankang City is the Stone City, facing the West Fence Gate, and then enter the Ximing Gate, the Ximing Gate is the Xihua Gate inside, and it is the Taicheng (Imperial Palace), and the Stone City is the Xizhou City a few miles to the south. The south of Jiankang City is a heavy land, most of the ministers' residences are here, Guangyangmen comes out to the south is the official road, the two sides of the official road are the residences of the hundred officials, through the Taishe and the Taimiao to the south through the West Market Mouth to the gathering place of the family, which is dominated by the Wang family and the Xie family.

The east of Jiankang City is the residential area of the aristocratic royal family, Dongyang Gate comes out and crosses the Qili Bridge to Dongfu City, Dongfu City is the aristocratic residence to the north, and Danyang County and Nanshi are crossed by the Huai River to the south. (To be continued.) )