"The Empress Dowager is unconscious." She knelt behind the emperor, the emperor was lying on the couch, his head resting on the queen's lap, the hall was silent, surrounded by flickering candlelight and heavy shadows, even so, Li Liyi still kept her voice very low. Dean Sun carefully diagnosed the saint and prescribed a lot of medicines. However, Dean Sun told the concubine that the Empress Dowager had come to the end of her life, and this time the medicine stone was useless. ”

"How is the saint feeling now?"

The sage was very open, she had already guessed her own situation, and she was not sad or sad, and said that she was very happy to see Emperor Gaozu soon. She also said that she lived more than half a year longer than Gaozu, and she was very happy to see Da Sui inherit and prosper again in the hands of His Majesty. When I met Gaozu, I also confessed. Li Liyi said.

"Oh." Yi Feng has also been paying attention to the physical condition of the Empress Dowager Dugu, since Emperor Wen was killed by his son, this strong woman has been defeated, if it were not for the civil strife was quickly pacified, and the Great Sui was back on track, I am afraid that she would not be able to survive until now. But even if you watch the end of the civil strife, but after losing two sons and husband one after another, this once proud woman has been injured too deeply, at the end of last year, the imperial doctor reported to Yi Feng, the body of the Queen Mother Dugu has collapsed, and there is a phenomenon of returning to the light, and it is difficult to survive the end of the year. Yi Feng even asked people to start preparing for the future, but she survived the New Year, but it only lasted a few more days, until the arrival of the first year of Kaiyuan, and until she saw the victory in Liaodong. "The saint is a very remarkable woman, a woman who does not let her eyebrows, the founding of the Great Sui Empire, has half of her merits."

The emperor's evaluation of the Empress Dowager made the empress slightly surprised. That's a pretty high rating.

"In the past two days, you and I have been accompanying the Queen Mother." Easy air duct.

"Hmm." Li Liyi nodded and pressed her hands on the emperor's temples. Press gently.

Both of them stopped talking, and Yi Feng lamented the end of an old era. A new era has arrived.

After a while, Yi Feng changed his clothes and took the queen to the palace where the Empress Dowager lived in Houyuan, and accompanied the Empress Dowager together, but at this time, the Empress Dowager Dugu was completely unconscious, and she didn't even have the slightest sense of consciousness, just lying there quietly, panting heavily, wheezing like a cow, and her hands and feet were swollen. It was swollen to the knee and elbow joints, and the body was also very hot. Sun Simiao whispered to Yi Feng about his illness, saying that the Empress Dowager was about to return to heaven. Yi Feng nodded, he also knew that there was a folk saying, that is, the old man's hands and feet were swollen, especially from the end of the hands and feet a little upward, which was generally regarded as a precursor to imminent death, and it was said that the swelling could not be done in the joints, once the swelling reached the position of the knees and elbows. That's basically a sure death.

Yi Feng walked to the edge of the couch, and the unconscious Empress Dowager was panting like a cow, whirring like a mountain, which reminded Yi Feng of his grandmother in later generations. At that time. My grandmother was like this before she died, and all the things about that life that she had forgotten for a while came to mind. This made Yi Feng's eyes moisten, and the Empress Dowager overlapped her grandmother. For the first time, Yi Feng had an inexplicable sense of closeness to this strong woman of the Great Sui who once made him a little awe-inspired. At this moment, she is no longer the queen, the emperor, and the queen mother, she is her grandmother.

Tears couldn't help but stay, Yi Feng sat on the couch, helped the Empress Dowager up, and leaned on her arms, so that she could breathe a little easier, although at this time, she couldn't feel it anymore.

"Bring me a comb." Easy air duct.

The queen took a comb with her own hand, this is just a very ordinary wooden comb in the palace of the Empress Dowager, this amazing woman has the world, but she has always been frugal and never willing to be extravagant, the biggest luxury in this life is the Renshou Palace built by Yang Su for Emperor Wen and his wife. But the extravagant Renshou Palace was not her will, but Yang Su had already built it, and the emperor was furious, so she let the emperor accept it in order to bridge the relationship with this monarch.

Holding a wooden comb and combing the silver thread for the Queen Mother, Yi Feng's tears couldn't stop falling.

"The Empress Dowager is in tears." Among the several eldest princesses standing on the side, Princess Yang Awu of Lanling suddenly said, everyone realized that the emperor was combing the hair of the Empress Dowager with tears, and the Empress Dowager, who had already fallen into a coma and unconscious, actually shed two lines of tears.

Yi Feng reached out to help her wipe away her tears, and then suddenly she couldn't hear her heavy breathing.

Sun Simiao is very experienced, and as soon as he saw the Empress Dowager crying, he already knew that this saint had collapsed. After stepping forward cautiously and carefully inspecting it, Sun Simiao knelt in front of the emperor and reported painfully, "Report to Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager and the Saint have passed away." ”

In the political affairs hall, the nine prime ministers and the subordinates of the five houses were nervously discussing how to set up the two provinces of Liaodong and Liaobei in the newly recovered Liaodong, how to divide the prefectures and counties, how to select and recommend suitable officials, and how to deal with the Goguryeo people in Liaodong, etc., in addition, although there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Eastern Expedition who have to withdraw and only 100,000 are left to garrison, but the supply of food and winter clothes cannot be sloppy. When he was busy with his worries, he heard someone shouting outside the door, "Xianggong, everyone, the Empress Dowager has collapsed." ”

The nine prime ministers in the capital hall who were discussing the list of provincial and state-level officials in Liaodong and Liaobei provinces couldn't help but be stunned for a moment when they heard this, and then reacted, and everyone was silent for a while.

The death of the Empress Dowager, from now on, there will really be no one in the Great Sui world who can exert influence on that emperor. I don't know if it's good or bad, everyone thinks of one thing, this is the end of an old era, the beginning of a new era. Especially Yang Su, he has a younger sister who is married to the younger brother of the Empress Dowager, so he has always had a close relationship with the Empress Dowager, and it is with this relationship that he can step by step to the central core of the imperial court. After the new emperor ascended the throne, he clearly showed that kind of self-respect, revealing an eclectic style of acting everywhere, and acting extremely boldly, which made Yang Su a reformist unable to keep up with the rhythm. Now there is not even the only empress dowager who can pour some cold water on the emperor at the right time and help brake the brakes, and I am afraid that the emperor will act more unrestrained in the future. And Guanlong people like him, who have been suppressed by the new emperor, are afraid that the situation will become more and more worrying in the future. Yang Su only felt that another boulder was pressed on his heart, like a weight of tens of thousands of catties, which made him a little breathless.

In the city of Luoyang, the bells of the temple and Taoist temple rang together, sounding the death knell for the Empress Dowager and announcing to all the people in the world that the Empress Dowager Dugu collapsed in the Ziwei Palace in Luoyang.

A bell rang throughout the world, and the soldiers and civilians of Zhongjing City came out of the house one after another, counting the number of bells ringing. Soon, Zhi Jinwu, who was dressed in plain clothes, appeared in the streets and alleys of Zhongjing, and officially announced the mourning to the soldiers and civilians of the Beijing Division.

The Empress Dowager collapsed, and according to the system, she was forbidden to get married within three months, and it was forbidden to drink alcohol for fun, and the whole country mourned for the Empress Dowager.

The emperor decreed that Taifu, Shangshu Zuo Servant, and Yang Su, the Duke of Chu, were responsible for leading Yousi to hold the funeral of the Empress Dowager.

Luoyang Ziwei Palace, Kaiyuan Palace.

Although he dropped out of the dynasty, it was only a drop out of the foreign dynasty, and the regulation of the Kaiyuan Hall was like the Ganlu Hall in Xijing, which also belonged to the emperor's bedroom. The outer dynasty has stopped, but this country is full of troubles, and all kinds of affairs cannot be stopped, Yi Feng no longer goes to the outer court, but summons important ministers to discuss in the Ganlu Palace.

The emperor and the prime ministers of the two provinces are in power, and the important subordinate officials of the two governments are wearing mourning clothes, and what should be done cannot be delayed, and the etiquette cannot be violated, but the matter cannot be abolished.

Liaodong, which has just been recovered, the emperor has already issued an edict to newly establish Liaodong Province and Liaobei Province, the boundary between Liaoxi and Liaodong Liaobei Province is the Liao River, and the boundary between Liaodong and Liaobei Province is the Xiaoliao River. Originally, according to the opinions of some officials, there should be only one Liaodong Province, and the plains on the west bank of the Liaohe River should also be included in Liaodong Province, and Western Liaoning should be based on the mountainous areas, and even part of Xi and Khitan should be included in Western Liaoning, and part of the western part should be included in Saishang Province. However, after thinking about it, although Yi Feng felt that there were few people outside the Guanxi area, and it was possible to set up three provinces, it was inevitable that the place was too large, and the land outside the Guanxi was not a grassland, but could be developed, and it was divided into five provinces, namely Saishang, Saiwai, Liaoxi, Liaodong, and Liaobei, which was also to pay more attention to the areas outside the Guanxi, strengthen the development efforts, and strengthen the jurisdiction, so in the end it was decided to set the land outside the Guanxi as five provinces, and slightly adjust the jurisdiction of the original three provinces.

The new establishment of two provinces, plus Liaoxi Province has not been appointed before the provincial officials, so this time it is a provincial and state official of the three provinces at once, although it is only a place outside the Guan, but the provincial officials are three or four officials, and the state level is also four or five officials, which is already a very senior official in the Sui Dynasty, which is only two or three ranks, and a lot of people want to go outside the Guan. What's more, Guanwai has just fought a war, and as long as he does not go on a business trip and serves as an official, he will definitely have more points than serving in the mainland.

In addition to the selection of officials, the newly recovered land also needs to be governed, settled, reclaimed and built, pacified the old people of Goguryeo, and suppressed thieves and rebellions, which means that a lot of financial, material and human resources are needed.

On the Privy Council's side, there are also many important things. Regarding the strategic deployment of the next stage of the use of troops against Goguryeo, as well as the withdrawal of troops and garrisons, as well as the evaluation and reward of meritorious service after the war, there is also the most important issue, after the Privy Council was dismissed from Shi Wansui and Gao Jia took over as the deputy envoy, Li Jing, the deputy envoy who has made great contributions in the battle of Liaodong, has also been promoted, and now the post of deputy envoy is vacant. (To be continued......)