The emperor toured the south, leaving Zhang Tingyu, Tong Guowei and the old ministers Ma Qi and Chen Tingjing on duty in the south study, reading and playing on behalf of the emperor and handling daily government affairs. Generally, after being approved by the members of the South Study Room, it will be handed over to the six departments for processing. Naturally, important recitals should be put into the "yellow box" and waited for the emperor to return to Luan for approval, and if they were more urgent, they should use 600 miles of fast horses to report to the emperor and wait for the edict. On this day, the south study room was safe and sound, everything that should be done was done step by step, and several ministers were about to be on duty. Suddenly, Tong Guowei, who was wearing a blue-winged flower feather on the top of a coral, stepped in with a big grin and said coldly:

"The emperor is back, something big has happened."

Zhang Tingyu was stunned, and the two old ministers were even more frightened. During the Qianlong period, he was a scholar in the middle of the Jinshi, and in the seventeenth year of Kangxi, he was on duty in the south study, and Chen Tingjing, who was not promoted to a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion until the emperor's southern tour, was timid by nature, and asked in a loud voice:

"Tong Xiang, what happened to the saint?"

Tong Guowei took the tone, leaned back on the Taishi chair, took a cup of hot tea from the little eunuch in the house, pinched the lid of the cup, and did not hurry to play with the ups and downs of the silver needle tea leaves, pouting and blowing wisps of white hot mist, squeaking, but he loved to talk about it. Tong Guowei is forty-six or seventeen years old, and he is neither big nor small among the four prime ministers of the Manchu and Han dynasties: one generation younger than Chen Tingjing and Ma Qi, who are old qualifications, and one generation older than Zhang Tingyu, whom he called "upstart". He is the youngest brother of Kangxi's biological mother Tong Jia, and the brother of Tong Jia, who is now the queen, is Kangxi's brother-in-law according to his generation, and he is not called uncle according to royal rules, so he can only be called "Tong Guowei, the minister of scattered rank". In the early years of Kangxi, he hung up the false title of a first-class guard. The pearl who was not suitable for the moment of refuge in power was pressed by the old minister's forehead and sat on a cold bench. It wasn't until the fall of Mingzhu ten years ago, Suo Etu's fall from grace, and the big change of classes in the South Study that Kangxi promoted this brother-in-law to a scholar of Tirenge University and let him be in the South Study.

Tong Guowei relied on being a relative of the emperor, and he looked down on the two old guys a little, and secretly thought that the two old doves occupied the magpie's nest, so he soaked in the cold palace for so many years. Naturally, he didn't dare to underestimate Zhang Tingyu. The second son of Zhang Ying, a generation of famous ministers, was a twenty-eight-year-old middle jinshi, and at the age of twenty-nine, he entered the south study, the youngest minister of the upper study in this dynasty. The egg is full of bones, the outside is round and the inside is square, the knowledge is good, the Tao is full of economic wealth, and the person is stable and stable, you can't find the slightest problem. The emperor values him, and he Tong Guowei just wants to wear small shoes for him, but it is also a tiger biting stone eggs, and there is nowhere to eat.

Zhang Tingyu, who is in his early thirties, is like his father when he was young, with a white face, a long figure, a clear skeleton, and tepid. He always stared at the arrogant, conceited but cynical Tong Guowei with gentle eyes, but he had already set off a monstrous wave in his heart. The emperor's southern tour was originally scheduled for more than two months, but now he has returned to Luan in less than a month, what happened? A country, a dynasty, hundreds of millions of people are tied to the emperor, and the emperor's accident is the smallest and the most important, he finally couldn't help asking:

"Prime Minister Tong, what happened to the emperor? As a courtier, you should share the emperor's worries, just say it! ”

"This-" Tong Guowei felt that Zhang Tingyu's calm words concealed the wit of "You don't share worries for the emperor", pretending to cough and cough his throat, and had to put down his shelf and say, "The emperor encountered a ...... in Taihu Lake"

Before the words fell, the two old men fell to their knees in fright, just kowtowed, muttering something in their mouths. Zhang Tingyu took a step closer to Tong Guowei, and said coldly with his eyebrows suddenly:

"It's a big thing, why didn't Tong Xiang say it earlier? Is the emperor in good health? ”

Tong Guowei couldn't stand Zhang Tingyu's tone, as if an invisible mountain was pressing towards him, but he couldn't attack - this kid took advantage of it, so he had to reply coldly:

"I heard the queen say that the dragon was fine, but he was frightened."

Zhang Tingyu breathed a long sigh of relief, helped Ma Qi and Chen Tingjing to stand up, and said in a consultative tone:

"Two seniors, it's already past the next duty time, please go back. Here the students and Tong Xiang are on duty, and they will stay for a while, and if the Holy Lord summons them, we will just reply. ”

After Ma and Chen left, Zhang Tingyuku sat in front of the case, as if he was looking through the papers, but in fact, he didn't read a word. I don't know when, Tong Guowei left. The upper study room with heavy doors and curtains, the Qianqing Palace with warped corners and cornices, and the huge Forbidden City have been shrouded in the glow of twilight, and Khotan is as lonely as an ancient tomb of a deserted temple. Zhang Tingyu seemed to be able to hear the sound of his uneasy heartbeat. The emperor toured the south and was attacked by a guest, which was a major event that had never happened in this dynasty. What kind of thief is it, can he be arrested and the culprit found?

It was already the time to hold the lamp, and Tingyu knew that the emperor would not summon him. How could an old man in his fifties come to summon you overnight after a fright, and a bumpy journey of thousands of miles, and if he does not recuperate for a few days? He stood up, packed up the papers on the case, and walked out of the palace gate nervously.

Zhang Tingyu had no intention of going back to his mansion, but asked the sedan chair who was staying outside the palace to walk towards Gao Shiqi's mansion in Buzi Hutong. Gao Shiqi is a bohemian poet and calligrapher, and has a very close relationship with Zhang Tingyu Lingzun. remembers that in the twenty-sixth year of Kangxi when Mingzhu suffered a disaster, Zhang Tingyu was still a fifteen or sixteen-year-old smart and handsome boy. In December of this year, the Empress Dowager collapsed, and she was still in mourning, and it happened that Mingzhu was celebrating her 50th birthday. The princes and ministers all went to congratulate him on his birthday, but his father knew that this was a taboo, and it was inconvenient to offend the pearl of the ruling and opposition powers, so he sent him to deal with the troubles.

At the staggered feast, drinking orders, chanting poems against each other, someone made a couplet:

The water department caught fire, and Jin Sikong built a large number of buildings;

The princes who are sitting on the throne are all masters of poetry. But the pair is absolutely outstanding, containing five elements, and it has a problem to deal with. University scholars Xu Qianxue and Gao Shiqi pondered and thought hard for a while. It just so happened that Nalan Mingzhu came to toast, and when he saw that there was a young man sitting on the top of the table robe and clothes, he asked:

"Whose son is this, but a talent."

"All the talents in the world are in the hub, but unexpectedly, there are also missing pearls." Gao Shiqi has always been laughing when he speaks, "The second son of Zhang Tongcheng, a university scholar, Zhang Zhongtang, doesn't know Ming Xiang?" He is a well-known young talent. ”

Nalan Mingzhu sighed, and seemed dissatisfied with Zhang Ying's substitution of peaches for Li. The ministers next to him coaxed and shrugged together:

"Zhang Gongzi, since he is a young talent, why don't you pair the next link?"

Zhang Tingyu, a young and elegant boy, smiled shyly and said:

"The students are ugly, and I ask for your forgiveness."

"Ladies and gentlemen" listened quietly, and you said what kind of following link this young genius said:

The northerners and the southerners, the Chinese book order something.

The room burst into laughter. But after laughing, someone changed his face and gnawed out the bones: "Didn't this kid scold a stray person?" It happened that Guo Xiulang, who was not showing off the imperial history, broke in, and Mingzhu was about to go up to greet him, but Master Guo took out a few pieces of paper from his horseshoe sleeve and read it in public:

Guo Xiu, please ask Mingzhu for corruption and bribery, and the law is corrupt, and the party is private, and the sick people of the country are guilty, and Guo Xiu kneels down: Check my dynasty

The Minister of the Upper Study, the Minister of the Guard, and the Pearl of the Taibao, since the 14th year of Kangxi, has been in the cabinet to counsellor the court, repeatedly

By the grace of God, entrusted with inferior responsibilities and high hopes, he should have been diligent and prudent, frugal and loving the people, and loyal

The victim tried to repay the incident in case the officer ......

It turned out to be the impeachment of Mingzhu, and none of the princes sitting were not stunned, and even the invincible Mingzhu was stunned in place, and his face turned from red to white and then from white to purple. Even Suo Etu, who was against Mingzhu, was stunned by the sudden attack of Ducha Yushi, who was not afraid of heaven and earth, and couldn't figure out whether to be secretly happy or afraid. Guo Yushi's impeachment was like a row of artillery, stirring up the sky, not only the prime minister's pearl, but also the university scholars Gao Shiqi, Yu Guozhu and Wang Hongxu and the like, were also boiled. The tone of the fold became more and more murderous:

In short, Mingzhu, Gao Shiqi, etc., jackals are their nature, snakes and scorpions are their hearts, and ghosts are in their shapes. The fearful both

Wait and see but dare not speak, and the trend is re-embraced but not spoken. If the minister does not speak, he will be deprived of holy grace. Therefore, it is not avoided

If you are resentful, please give it a reprimand, and if you are punished, the world will be very lucky!

No one pays attention to Tingyu Boy's disrespectful couplet, and everyone understands that if Guo Xiu's impeachment is not supported by anyone, it will not be enough to cut off three heads. The princes of Gon suddenly scattered as birds and beasts, and slipped ninety percent.

Zhang Tingyu witnessed the reversal incident and saw the severity of the officialdom where his father worked. No wonder his father has long been reluctant to be an official, as the prime minister, he has begged the emperor many times to give him a sick and old age to return to his hometown. His only long-cherished wish is to be a cloth cloth and a farmer. My father often couldn't help but chant Tao Yuanming's "Returning" repeatedly.

As the son grew up, his father personally taught his brother the Four Books and the Five Classics and Confucianism. When it comes to self-cultivation, he proudly tells his sons in detail about his own experience of "self-discipline" in enlightenment. He said that it is necessary to strictly control one's thoughts and feelings and not be swayed by external temptations. After Tingyu Zhong became a sergeant, his father was not as happy as the usual father, but called him into the study and taught him very strictly:

"As a father, I don't want to be an official, but I didn't expect my son to inevitably become an official. After decades of mixing in officialdom, I will tell you a little about the way of being an official - this is what my father has gradually realized in recent years: if you want to be invincible, you must build a square city of behavior for yourself, close the four gates, and do not allow thoughts of honor and disgrace, rise and fall, life and death, gain and loss to enter the castle. There is also a way to make oneself feel at ease: that is, never do unreasonable things, never do things that regret and need to be retrieved, never do things that are not ulterior, and things in the yamen, the property is counted and delivered at the time, and the property is not taken out in advance, nor is it left to be delivered afterwards. In this way, you will be able to fall asleep and eat deliciously. ”

Unexpectedly, his father begged for a retirement, and the emperor really promoted him to the upper study and became the second generation of the Zhang family's upper study minister. Although Zhang Tingyu kept in mind his father's way of being an official, he was not as cautious as his father. He read the Confucian classics of Confucius and Mencius, and had a strong idea of loving, cherishing, and cherishing the people. He thought that instead of letting traitorous ministers like the previous dynasties corrupt the government and harm the common people, it was better to do something to rejuvenate the country and benefit the people by the emperor's side. He was diligent in his duties in the south study, and he experienced the holy will, so he was looking for such an opportunity.

The sedan chair shook and put it down in front of the Gaofu gate. Zhang Tingyu retracted his thoughts, lifted the curtain, lifted the hem of the unicorn complement, walked out lightly, and went straight to the middle hall of the high mansion. The guards and family members of the Gaofu Mansion did not know the young prime minister, so they were busy bowing and bowing, and a song of promises passed in:

"Zhang Shaoxiang arrived-"

"It's so little—"

When Zhang Tingyu came to the middle hall, Gao Shiqi, who had a bandage wrapped around his arm, greeted him with a tired face, and when he saw Zhang Tingyu, he was like drinking ginseng soup, and he sang a promise:

"Hello, what kind of wind blew Zhang Xiang here," and asked pretending to be serious, "Don't the emperor have an urgent call?" ”

"What is not alike, what is not called?" Zhang Tingyu helped Gao Shiqi to sit in the middle, and said against the guest, "It looks like the old man was also frightened and injured?" Is it seriously injured, what happened? ”

"I was bitten by a mad dog, and I left a corpse." Gao Shiqi asked his family to serve tea for Tingyu, remembering the nightmare, his face couldn't help but spasm slightly, and he sighed and changed his homely tone:

"Cough, virtuous nephew, this time, Lord Lingzun and the old man accompanied the emperor on a trip to Taihu Lake, and almost caused a catastrophe!"

"Father went too?" Zhang Tingyu was shocked again.

"It was pulled by the emperor."

"Father, he-"

"Noble Tianxiang, he is nothing, a false alarm."

Zhang Tingyu doesn't drink, the host is as casual as the guest, and the two drink tea together. Gao Shiqi then told the emperor before and after the encounter with the masked thief on Taihu Lake, and did not dare to omit even an insignificant detail.

Zhang Tingyu sat there and listened to the creepy clay sculptures. Gao Fuzi's voice had fallen, and he was silent for a while, and Fang suddenly woke up and asked:

"The Ke is strong in martial arts, and since he has escaped, it seems that it is difficult to search and arrest. Are there any clues to where it was done? ”

"There is no trace," Gao Shiqi shook his head, spreading his hands tiredly, "Someone saw that there was a black mole, and there was a handful of hanging hair, but other than that, there was no trace of eggs." ”

Zhang Tingyu saw that Gao Shiqi was palpitating in his chest and was haggard physically and mentally, so he got up and said goodbye, and asked him to recuperate in the palace, and the emperor had them waiting for him.

When I got home, Mrs. Wang led Yahuan Zitong to visit outside the second gate. It was past the usual duty time, and dinner was served on the table, cold and hot, hot and cold, and more than an hour passed, and the old man still did not return home. The affairs of the imperial court, such as the celestial phenomena in early spring in the south of the Yangtze River, change when they are said, and his wife is worried about him. Waiting for the four sedan chairs to creak into the house gate, and the sedan chair fell off in the courtyard of the second gate, Mrs. Xian greeted her husband, and Zitong shouted in Chongli:

"The master is back, ready to eat!"

Zhang Tingyu lifted the curtain and walked out, his wife took his hand, looked at his slightly pale and stern face, and asked with concern:

"Why are you coming back late? You okay! ”

"It's fine." When Tingyu saw his family, he immediately regained his former kind and kind smile, which he also learned from his father: he was the most troublesome about things outside, and he didn't show it in front of his family, so he ate well and slept soundly. Walking into the middle hall, Zitong put on a wide robe for the master, wore it on the top, wore boots, and changed into a loose and comfortable soapcloth gown. After entering the bathroom and cleaning his hands, he came to the dining table that had already been prepared in the flower hall, Tingyu first pulled the five-year-old third son Ruoyu from the nurse and kissed him, the little baby's red apple-like face, lively and cute. He couldn't help but hold it high, tossing and playing. After a while, Wang pulled Ruoyu over, handed it to the nurse, and sat down to eat, and the family was happy.

Mrs. Wang is the daughter of Wang Shizhen, a great poet who leads a generation of coquettish poetry and a secretary of the Criminal Department. Their marriage was held in the prime minister's mansion, where my father had lived for decades. The four Tingyu brothers were all born here. Tingyu is the second, the word Hengchen; The eldest brother Ting Zhan, the word minister, the eighteenth year of Kangxi, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, the official at least Zhan Shi. The third old Tinglu, the word Baochen, fifty-seven years of Jinshi, the second place in the first class of the palace examination, the list eye, the later editor and repair, entered the south study, moved to lecture on the bachelor, and had two governors of Jiangsu Xuezheng. The fourth elder Tingyao, the word Huan Chen, was born in the first year of Yongzheng, from the editor to the Ministry of Works, and the official. In the ninth year of Qianlong, he was re-appointed as a cabinet bachelor and a waiter in the Ministry of Rites. In the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong, he died at the age of eighty-four. Qianlong said to the ministers: "Zhang Tingyao's brothers are all old ministers and sages, and now they are all wilted, and they can be safe." He sighed for a long time.

Zhang Tingyu's eldest son, Ruo Ai, was born in the thirtieth year of Kangxi and was twelve years old; The second son, Ruocheng, was born in the 34th year of Kangxi and is now eight years old. The sons of Zhang Tingyu and several brothers, most of them are in the Jinshi. Since Zhang Ying, the family of Kedi and the fourth generation have all been Hanlin lecturers - this is all a later story.

However, he said that since his father Zhang Yingzhishi returned to his hometown, the young prime minister Zhang Tingyu moved into the prime minister's mansion, which originally belonged to the former Prince Mingyi. The original mansion covers an area of more than ten hectares, and his father is a Qing official, so he doesn't have so much money to repair it, and he allocates part of it. After Tingyu moved in, he drew out the garden on the west side, leaving only the main gate, the middle hall and more than 30 houses in the east, the quadrangle courtyard with four entrances and two columns, plus the back garden with ponds, rockeries and pavilions on the east side, which was compact and just fit, and only more than 30 people were left for domestic servants and girls.

At the beginning of Zhang Tingyu's entry into the cabinet, the imperial court wanted to allocate silver to repair the prime minister's mansion, but Tingyu did not allow it, he wanted to keep the original appearance, so as to always remember the teachings of his father. In this flower hall, which is used as a living room, the only luxurious furnishings are a Taihu Lake stone bonsai that my father often plays with, a set of "palace officials Yaji cup", and the "Autumn Mountain Map" hanging on the front wall.

In addition, there is nothing long. He has no time to be like the former prime minister Mingzhu, nor like the prime minister Tong Guowei of the same dynasty, who does everything possible to collect antiques, calligraphy and paintings; It's not even as good as my father's spare time, and he has the "palace bureaucrat Yaji Cup" to write poems in the wind. He's too busy. Every day in the imperial court to deal with the emperor's summons, there are endless Zhu criticism, Zhu edicts, folds, submissions from various ministries and prefectures, and endless drafts of the emperor's edicts, orders, and imperial lists. What's more, every night when he gets home, he has to write his "Miscellaneous Notes of the Ruling and Wild", recording what he saw and heard that day, and what he thought and thought, so that he could check it in the future.

Zhang Tingyu put down the dishes and chopsticks, Zitong waited to wash his hands and face, soak his feet, and walked towards the study. This is a common practice, until late at night or even midnight, the lord will not sleep peacefully, and the lady will not hinder him, leaving only the smart and clever Zitong to guard the study, waiting for the lord to call. She and the nurse went back to the room with the baby Ruoyu who had been sleeping peacefully in her arms.

Sitting down in front of the bookcase, Zhang Tingyu opened the thick Huizhou Shengxuan bound miscellaneous notebook, and the entire page in front of it was filled with the miscellaneous affairs of the government and the opposition. Turning to the blank space, the empathetic Zitong had already milled the Hui ink, and Shang Gu Zhai handed over the wolf with a small block pen. Tingyu took the pen and leaned into the inkstone, the tip of the pen was dry, and the hard ink could not be used. Zitong took it, put the tip of the pen into the cherry mouth, bit it with pearl white thin fish teeth, got wet, and then handed it over. Zhang Tingyu took the pen, glanced at Zitong, pouted and smiled:

"Look at you, go wash up."

After Zitong left, facing the white page, Zhang Tingyu raised his pen several times, but he couldn't fall down, and he didn't know what to write. His mind was suddenly empty like a gourd scoop that had been drained of his thoughts. The emperor encountered a thief in Jiangnan, this incident is too serious and incredible. Who is the monster who dares to slay the emperor in broad daylight? Or is it the force of the people who oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty? Could it be that the so-called "Third Prince Zhu" rebellion that has been in the capital for a while? "Zhu Santai" was exiled to Jiangnan, wasn't it executed in the twenty-third year of Kangxi's false crown prince Yang Qilong Lingchi? Since the emperor ascended the throne, he respected Confucius, admired Confucianism, opened a department of erudition and vocabulary in order to recruit the Han Confucian who had lost the people, and made a special trip to Jiangning to pay tribute to the Ming Mausoleum for the first time. It should be said that the Manchu-Han controversy is no longer a problem. It has been 60 years since the Qing Dynasty entered the Guanli Dynasty. So who is the force that takes the risk and buys the killer to kill the emperor? The masked man dared to trespass into the heavily guarded royal ship alone, and he was almost certain that it would not be a personal vengeance!

Today's emperor is rigid and self-confident, and he is both gracious and powerful, in order to consolidate the foundation of the emperor and pass it on to all generations, and now there are people who are acting against him, and his anger can be imagined. What Zhang Tingyu is afraid of is that the emperor will be angry and angry, and he will set off an uproar inside and outside the court, create unjustified unjust cases, and involve all parties innocently, so that the peaceful and prosperous world will fall back into turmoil and unrest, and he will have no time to take care of the major affairs of governing the river, rejuvenating agriculture and benefiting the people.

Thinking of this, Zhang Tingyu stood up, paced to the window, and suddenly remembered a poem in "Wenwen Mountain Collection":

In the hundred years of success and failure,

Laugh at the Keshan bureau is not over.

Golden Horse Shengyou Chengyang Rain,

The copper camel is hated to pay the west and the east.

The black head boasted of Mr. Jiang,

Cold-toothed people can say Chu Gong.

The dragon's head is a dream,

Dream back to where to see Jiangdong.

The prime minister of the champion can't hide his descendants, Mengyan killed the prime minister of Wen by lowering the yuan, and even digging up the grave and burning bones, so wronged, why not. Thinking of Wen Tianxiang's poem, Zhang Tingyu had mixed feelings, and his whole body was cold-

At that time, Zitong gently draped a gray squirrel skin on him, pulled his hand and said:

"Master, it's late at night, it's cold, the slave and maid are waiting for the master to rest!"

As soon as he turned around, he asked in surprise:

"Hmm, Zitong, are you still here?"

"Madame wants the slave and maid to wait for the master here."

"There you go!" Zhang Tingyu waved his hand.

"No," Zitong leaned over and said coquettishly, "Madame wants the slave to wait for the master to sleep." ”

"You want to sleep with the master?" He was taken aback.

"Yes!" Zitong nodded, imitating the lady's tone, "Madam said, the master of another family, after the year of establishment, has long been three wives and four concubines. My lord only knows how to be busy with the affairs of the court and worries about the emperor, and now he doesn't have a concubine, and he really treats the lord badly. The lady is pregnant again, so she is called the slave maid......"

"Madame pregnant?" Zhang Tingyu is happy again.

"It's been four months." Zitong said, "Sir, you are so busy that every night when you go to bed, Mrs. is asleep, and when you wake up early, you go to court again, and you don't have time to tell you the happy news." ”

Zitong can speak well, graceful, and moving. Zhang Tingyu couldn't help but glance at her. The girl is only sixteen or seventeen years old, and she looks like a flower. It's not impossible to be a concubine, but now the emperor is angry, the court situation is unpredictable, and there are too many troublesome things for him to consider. He waved his hand to Zitong anxiously and said:

"Let's go, next time."

Zitong left in a daze, and he didn't know what the master said, "I'll talk about it next time".

Zhang Tingyu was naturally happy, his wife was pregnant again, and another silly boy or good daughter would come to the world. However, it is precisely in order for the "silly boy", "good daughter" and hundreds of millions of ordinary people in the world to live a peaceful and stable life, the court needs stability, and the world must be stable.

He walked over like a trapped beast in the study, walked over, and longed for the east to be bright immediately, immediately go to the court, and make generous suggestions to extinguish the anger in the emperor's heart, and then offer the emperor a policy of peace and stability.

The next day, the emperor did not go to court, nor did he summon the ministers of the interior and outside. Inside and outside the court, in the streets and alleys, there were many discussions and rumors. Early in the morning, the ministers waiting for the court outside the Qianqing Gate were in groups of three or five, talking to each other, like mourning and examining. Obviously, the news of the emperor's southern tour had already spread.

On the third pole of the day, the great eunuch Li Dequan came out to proclaim:

"The emperor is not going to court today, please go back!"

Everyone had dispersed, and Zhang Tingyu walked into the south study with a heavy heart, sitting in a daze. Old Prime Minister Ma Qi and Chen Tingjing are whispering earnestly:

"Is the emperor in a dragon body unsafe, do you want to hand over the sign to go in and take a look?"

"The emperor was shocked and angry, and he was ...... on the fire"

Tong Guowei's ears were sharp, and when he heard the private discussion between the two old ministers, he said with a big grin: "It's okay." The emperor is resting in the queen's Kunning Palace. ”

As Uncle Yu Guo said, after Kangxi returned to Luan, he didn't go anywhere, so he stayed in the queen's Kunning Palace. Xuan Ye, who used to be powerful, is over fifty years old, and he is a little timid and weak-hearted, and he does not have the pride of holding a bow and shooting a tiger back then. After the fright on Taihu Lake, he felt that only by snuggling in the queen's arms could he sleep peacefully. Perhaps, the older people get, the more attached they are to women, this kind of attachment is different from the young and middle-aged people who are overly bloody, it may not be the desire of lust, nor is it a love for men and women, and the blockade of ** is eliminated. The old man lies in the arms of a woman, like a baby in the arms of a mother, in order to feel safe.

Empress Tong Jia is nearly twenty years younger than Kangxi, and it is when women are the most mature and plump. Kangxi loves this queen more than more than 30 concubines in the palace. In the twenty-ninth year of Kangxi, the queen's brother Tong Guogang, accompanied the imperial expedition to the west to Geerdan, and was shot and killed in the battle of Ulan Butong, giving his young life. Isn't it safe to lie in the arms of such a flesh-and-blood woman?

In his sleep, Kangxi suddenly screamed and sat up. The queen lifted the warm quilt and immediately hugged him in her arms, and called repeatedly:

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty—"

Kangxi was in a cold sweat and sat stiffly on the dragon bed. Empress Tong Jia helped him wipe away the beads of sweat, still hugged him tightly and said:

"Your Majesty, frightened, are you dreaming?"

"It's okay, you can sleep." Kangxi pushed the quilt out of bed, and when he arrived in the outer hall, the eunuchs and palace maids on duty served the emperor in civilian clothes and wore a gold silk embroidered dragon hat. Under the support of the eunuchs, he came out of the Cangzhen Gate and entered Jingren Palace. At this time, the genius shone slightly.

In the dream, there was a scene of the westward expedition to Geerdan, and someone tried in vain to starve him to death in the desert Hanhai, which made Kangxi feel restless. That year, Tang Yao first beheaded and then played the governor of Shaanxi Ge Li, and finally escorted the grain and grass to the barracks, saving the lives of the emperor and tens of thousands of soldiers. After the incident, the Criminal Department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate investigated and dealt with it, but no results were found, and a number of insignificant derelict officials were executed in vain.

Kangxi reclined on the soft couch, thinking of the guests in Taihu Lake, and his heart suddenly tightened: Is it that the roots are all by my side, in the elder brother and prince who covet my throne? He knew that he had given birth to too many sons, and there were thirty-six princes on the register. Some of them can't distinguish at all, and they don't recognize them completely. Is there a certain son of evil among them who wants to follow the example of Emperor Yang of Sui to kill the king and usurp the throne? If this is the case, the Qing Dynasty will be cut off in the hands of these rebel sons and ministers, and the Golden Palace Jade Rank will flow blood into a river......

A red sun rose and illuminated the jade steps. Kangxi came to the courtyard and walked, his numb head gradually relaxed and became energetic under the warm sun. He didn't believe that there was a retribution of the evil seed like Yang Guang among his sons, maybe Ge Li's death was just a coincidence of the mistake of the stagecoach passing the military plane, maybe the Taihu Lake Raider was just a desperate gamble of the "Third Prince Zhu", and there was no need for all the grass and trees to be suspicious.

"Well, that's good." He returned to the hall again, sat on the dragon case, and flipped through the various ministries and mansions in the yellow box that had not reached the "imperial review" and "imperial approval". Flipping and rolling, suddenly his eyes lit up, and on the secret fold of the governor, governor and criminal department of Zhejiang, Long Feifeng danced and made "Zhu Criticism", and then stood up and shouted at Li Dequan, who was waiting in the outer room:

"Get up and clear the palace!"

Eunuch Li sang a promise:

"The emperor has set up to clean the palace——"

This is like the echo of the valley, passing through the heavy gates, and the sound is transmitted outward, directly to the ears of the princes and ministers who have been waiting outside the court for three days.

Zhang Tingyu was the first to feel excited and relieved: "The emperor is finally coming to the court." He, together with the ministers, the prince, and the ministers, climbed the jade steps and walked into the main hall. Like a hurricane blowing down the withered grass, snapping the horseshoe sleeves, kneeling on the ground in front of the dragon case, chanting in unison:

"Long live our emperor! Banzai! Hooray......"

Maybe the embers in Kangxi's heart have not been extinguished, but his face is very calm. He glanced at the ministers kneeling below one by one, and did not squeak for a long time.

Seeing that there was no movement, the old minister Ma Qi did not dare to raise his head, so he kowtowed to the ground again and again, and said:

"Old minister Ma Qi, I respectfully invite the emperor to be sainte. The minister was shocked to hear that the emperor was in danger in Taihu Lake, and he was restless day and night, but the emperor was blessed with great blessings and was unscathed, which was a great luck in the world and a great luck for the subjects. ”

Kangxi stood up, stepped off the throne, and said as he walked:

"Ma Qi is flat, and all the secretaries are flat. Haven't I come back in good place, standing before you? The remnants of the former Ming Dynasty, the clown who jumped off the beam, also wanted to do something to shake the Qing Dynasty, isn't that a lamp moth fighting a fire, and a mantis arm blocking the car? "Pacing back to the throne again, and proclaiming the decree loudly," Hengchen drafted the decree on behalf of me: stationed in the Jiangning Banner Camp to unify the Oro Dai, escort the meritorious service, attack the first-class duke, confer the rank of minister, and reinstate the minister of the guard; Gao Shiqi has meritorious service in escorting, and he is ordered to return to his hometown and add a small title. ”

Zhang Tingyu came out of the queue and kowtowed:

"Commandment."

"Wang Shizhen, the secretary of the Criminal Department, listens to the order!" Kangxi continued, "The governor and governor of Zhejiang have all made secret folds, and Zhuang Tinglong, the former Ming Dynasty remnant of Huzhou, compiled and engraved anti-books, instigated anti-Qing and Ming Dynasty fallacies, and the crime was extremely heinous and heinous. That is, the Criminal Department sent personnel to strictly investigate, and anyone who compiled, published, or sold this book would be killed! ”

"Minister, Commander!" Wang Shangshu knelt down to accept the order, and his chest fluttered.

"Hengchen, you will draft an edict on my behalf, summon the case of Zhuang Tinglong's private anti-book ridicule of current politics to the world, and give the so-called literati and bachelors who make up and copy nonsense for fame and reputation, and then ring the alarm bell. Whoever dares to repeat the mistakes of the past and follow in the footsteps of the past will be severely punished. ”

"Minister, obey the order!" Zhang Tingyu, who knelt beside his father-in-law Wang Shizhen, kowtowed again.

"There is a book, but there is no book!" Kangxi glanced at the ministers one by one, as if to see how they reacted. is so murderous, who would dare to hit the wooden clock? Li Dequan saw that no one was out of class, and the emperor had stepped down from the throne and shouted loudly:

"Retreat—"

After a pause, he shouted again:

"The emperor drove back to the palace—"

Kangxi walked past Zhang Tingyu, who was still kneeling there, and called:

"Hengchen, come with me!"