In March, the news came from outside the palace that the eldest princess of Wei was critically ill.

The eldest princess of Wei is the eighth daughter of Emperor Taizong and the only living among Zhenzong's brothers and sisters, and has always been respected and loved by today. Although she is a royal daughter, she is virtuous and frugal like the characters in "The Biography of the Daughters", and she is filial to her uncle and aunt after descending from the concubine Li Zunxuan, respects her husband, and treats the concubine as if she were her own.

Later, the concubine Li Zunqiao had an affair with the main nurse, and after the incident, some officials suggested that the concubine be severely punished, and even take his life. Zhenzong hesitated, so he summoned the great lord first, and said tentatively: "I have something I want to tell you, but I am worried about ......" Before the words were finished, the great lord was already shocked and immediately asked: "Is Li Zunqiao okay?" Yibi said, and Yibi burst into tears and fell to the ground crying. Therefore, Zhenzong spared Li Zunqiao and only demoted him to the deputy envoy of the Junzhou regiment.

After the horse died of illness, the lord did not wear Chinese clothes, hairpin ornaments, and deliberately raised the sons of the horse on weekdays, and often admonished them to be loyal and self-controlled, therefore, from the emperor to the Manchu Dynasty scholars, all praised its virtues, and now she is more often used as an example to teach the princess to abide by the law, guard against arrogance, and in the future, it is advisable to prepare all the women's ways, love the husband, and think that the world is a model for women.

As soon as I heard about her illness this time, Zhang Mao of the Imperial Pharmacy was sent to take the imperial doctor to the lord's house for consultation, from the queen, the concubine, and the princess to the first question, and worship with family salutes, and the queen personally offered medicine tea to enter the lord, with a respectful attitude like a big master's wife.

The imperial doctor replied that the lord was not in good condition, and he immediately drove to the mansion of the lord of Xingda. At this time, the lord was seriously ill and could no longer see, so he was very sad today, and he stepped forward to lick his aunt's eyes with tears, and the people on the left and right all hid their tears and wept when they saw this.

Later, he turned to the descendants of the great lord and asked them what they wanted, intending to make him an official and promoted to a knighthood, but the lord warned his son on the sickbed: "How can you take advantage of my mother's illness to ask for a reward from the official family?" "Today, I gave three thousand taels of platinum, and the lord insisted that he would not accept it.

After returning to the palace, he ordered the recruitment of good doctors from all over the world, and promised that if he could cure the lord, he would be awarded an official. And gave the golden words of the imperial book of the great lord's house: "Great compassion thousand hands and eyes Bodhisattva." He also ordered the princess to copy a hundred scrolls of scriptures and pray for the blessing of the lord...... But none of these measures have been able to prolong the life of the Great Lord. A few days later, the eldest princess of Wei came to her house to cry and mourn, dropped out of the dynasty for five days, and posthumously crowned the lord as the eldest princess of Qi, and the nickname was agreed to be "dedicated to Mu".

In order to express his sorrow, he even issued an edict to stop the Qianyuan Festival, but the ministers all objected, saying that the Christmas strike was unlucky, and he would no longer insist on it.

Due to the death of the great lord, the Qianyuan Festival in mid-April was not as lively as in previous years, although the etiquette procedures were not bad, but the emperor looked gloomy, and the rest of the people were not as happy and smiling as before.

On the birthday of the Son of Heaven, as a rule, the ministers led hundreds of civil and military officials to line up under His Royal Highness Zichen, worship and dance, and then the ministers entered the palace to congratulate the emperor on his longevity. After the ceremony, the emperor gave a hundred officials tea soup, and then moved into the forbidden, at that time the queen had led the women to wait inside and outside the Funing Palace. When the emperor enters the palace, he orders the woman to worship and congratulate, and the wife of the minister also has the honor of entering the palace to congratulate the emperor on his birthday, and to tie the arm of the Son of Heaven with a red Luo pin gold handkerchief to express blessings. After that, the lady bowed and withdrew, and Yan sat on the left side of the hall corridor, and then the music began to open the royal feast.

The lady of the courtesy on this day is Mrs. Wen Yanbo. After the toast, some ministers presented a red Luo pin gold handkerchief, and Mrs. Wen Yanbo took it and tied it on her upper arm according to the ceremony. After she tied it, Imakami asked her a question she hadn't expected: "This Luopa, but the lantern brocade cut?" ”

Mrs. Wen was stunned for a moment, then her face turned red, and she bowed and said, "The concubine is scared......"

Jinshang smiled slightly, and said kindly: "It's okay, madam, please sit down." ”

Mrs. Wen thanked her and bowed her head and retreated.

After that, the banquet was held, and each line of wine was accompanied by sheng pa singing and dancing and miscellaneous opera tunes, but now he was very happy, and said to the queen: "Princess Xianmu has not passed away for a long time, and then listening to these dance music in the workshop, I always feel too noisy." ”

The queen suggested: "Or suspend the ensemble and let one or two people play the flute, so that there will be music and not too much noise." ”

"Xiao Di ......" he groaned today, as if he remembered something, he began to smile lightly, "I remember that one year during the Qianyuan Festival, Cao Lang also played "Qingping Le" with a dragon flute in the palace, and Miss Du made peace with Gong Hou. The sound of the flute is clear and melodious like the wind under the bamboo, and the ethereal and cold sound is like glacial water. ”

The queen also smiled and said: "At that time, the concubine's younger brother was only a teenager, and now it is inconvenient to go to the palace to play for Your Majesty. What's more, it's hard to find Miss Du here......"

Now he bowed his head and said abruptly: "Yes, now that I want to come, I can only sigh that this song should only be available in the world." ”

The attendants on the side knew that Zhang Weiji heard it, and said softly with a smile: "Although it is inconvenient for Cao Lang to go to the palace again, the eldest son of his family is not very old now, he has just turned fourteen, if he plays in the palace, it may not be too rude...... On New Year's Day, the queen ordered the minister to send a meal to Cao Gongzi who was waiting outside, and when the minister found him in the back garden, he saw that he was sitting on a mountain rock and playing the flute. ”

The princess sat near the emperor and queen as usual, and when she heard the mention of Cao Ping, her eyes were like the blue lake water reflected in the spring sun, shining brightly and looking forward to it. At this moment, she paid more and more attention to Imajo's expression, and she stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to react.

Jinshang was also a little interested in this suggestion, so he asked the queen: "Has Brother Ping entered the palace today?" ”

The queen replied: "Here, now sit with his father Yan under His Royal Highness Zichen." ”

Today, Ren Shouzhong, who was standing beside him, sent someone to invite Cao Ping, thought about it, and asked Zhang Weiji: "The woman in the workshop, who plays the best gonghou?" ”

Zhang Weiji said: "Xianshao's deputy envoy Lu Yingniang's gonghou song can still be heard. ”

So today he ordered someone to set up a gong in the hall, Xuan Lu Yingniang entered, and later played with Cao Ping.

Suddenly, some ministers moved the temple to a corner of the main hall. The Konghou is three feet high, shaped like half of the wooden comb, decorated with black lacquer and gold decoration, Zhang 25 strings, and there is a pedestal under it.

Lu Yingniang and Cao Ping entered the palace successively, saluted the emperor and queen, and after receiving the order to play "Qingping Music", the two retreated to the side, discussed the details of the movement in a low voice, and then returned to their respective positions. Lu Yingniang knelt behind Konghou, bowed her eyebrows, and prepared to break the strings, while Cao Ping took the horizontal eight-hole dragon flute given by the emperor, and stood in the hall with a smile in one hand, without playing first, waiting for the sound of Konghou.

After a moment of silence, Lu Yingniang rotated her fingers, and a string of music like beautiful jade striking and snow-capped mountains and flowing springs immediately sounded.

Cao Ping waited for her to finish playing a paragraph before calmly introducing the flute to her lips. The sound of the gong hou paused, and another vein seemed to be a pleasant melody blown by the breeze and then floated in the air of the main hall, like a faint wisp of Lingshui fragrance escaping from the mouth of the golden beast, the music seemed to have the smell of flowers and trees in the morning, extending gently and soothingly, dancing in a roundabout way, and listening attentively, you will feel that your mind is also floating in the clouds.

After a stack of plays, the two began to play together, the sound of the gonghou flute intertwined, like hibiscus crying dew, pandan wind, listeners all held their breath and listened, sometimes like touching the wind and drizzle, sometimes like bathing in the cold moon light.

Moreover, not only the music is moving, but the two people who play the music are also extremely beautiful. Needless to say, Lu Yingniang is only sixteen or seventeen, with a slender posture, green mountains and distant mountains, and affectionate eyebrows. Cao Ping repeatedly turned to look at her between the flutes, and she also peeked at Cao Ping several times, and when she met her gaze, she had a crimson face.

However, this scene made the princess unhappy, and in the end, she simply turned her head and stopped looking at Cao Ping, lowered her eyes and pursed her lips, quite angry.

After the song was played, Jin Shang praised with a smile: "Brother Ping is young, and he has learned most of your father's stunts." This song with Ying Niang played well, and there is some meaning of empty mountains and clouds. ”

All the concubines in the palace praised her, but the princess didn't say a word. During this period, Cao Ping looked at her many times, as if waiting to signal her, but she always sat with a cold face, staring ahead, stubbornly refusing to look at him again.

After that, for several days, she did not mention Cao Ping or anything related to it, until one day, she walked to the edge of Yaojin Pond, and suddenly raised her eyes to look at the smoke willows in the distance, and after a while, she suddenly turned to me and said, "I want to learn Konghou." ”