"What's wrong, what's wrong?" I asked with interest.

He walked over and sat on a big rock, and said while fanning his clothes: "Something happened in the palace in the past two days, the emperor issued an edict to recruit capable people from all walks of life, and entered the palace three days later to participate in the Taoist competition. ”

"Daojutsu? What kind of Taoism? I asked.

"I also wanted to know, so I asked several passers-by, but the news seemed to be very tightly blocked, and no one knew for sure." Father Yan stroked his beard and said, "But today's emperor is famous for his hobby of Huang Laozhi, and I think nine times out of ten you are good at it." I said with a finger pointing at me

"Which set?"

"What to look at feng shui, look at the physiognomy, make a hexagram, do a ritual or something."

"This is what I'm good at, it's Rui Wei's forte, right?" I argued.

Rui Wei really said on the side: "Well, I think it's more appropriate for me to go, senior brother can say that he can speak, but when it comes to real skills, he can't do it, if there is really something ghostly, he will be in danger." ”

I was just chatting and joking, but when I heard her take the initiative to ask, I quickly said: "You are wrong, I can say that I can say it, and I have a lot of real skills, but I have been careful not to show it to you." Besides, I don't think it's going to be a ghost thing this time. ”

"Why?"

"The emperor has always been a self-appointed son of heaven, sacrosanct, if the palace really makes ghosts, it is a very shameless thing, how can it be so fanfare, what kind of competition? I think it's just that the emperor is idle and has nothing to do, and there is no need to fight and kill, it's no problem for me to go alone! "I analyzed.

Rui Wei pursed her lips, looked at me with suspicion and said, "Really? It can't be that you want to be in the limelight again to say these words to deceive us, right? ”

This girl, I'm obviously afraid that you will be in danger if you go, but you are really kind to be a donkey's liver and lungs! I immediately laughed and said, "Of course it's true!" Let me tell you, this step is very crucial, only I know best when I see what the emperor says, you should obediently prepare according to what I say, and wait for my good news! ”

"That's it!" Father Yan said, "Then I'll arrange and get you in when the time comes." ”

Wang Shaoting and Rui Wei glanced at each other, and then looked at my confident appearance, so they had to nod as well.

"By the way, there's another question, what does Taifu Mansion do?" I asked naively.

When the three of them heard this, their faces immediately turned pale, and they looked like they were about to faint.

I think back to that scene, and I still can't hide the smile on my lips. The so-called ignorant are fearless, for the current era, I am just an outsider, and I have always had the mentality of a bystander, because of this, I can look down on some things and see them clearly, and I will not easily fall into them and be blinded.

But Rui Wei and the others obviously won't let me go easily, and they seized the only two days of preparation time to make up for me in various ways in response to the various systems of the current imperial court.

Only then did I know that the current emperor is called Liu Zhi, known as Emperor Heng of Han, and it is now the eighth year of his accession to the throne.

This reminds me of Zhuge Liang's earnest words in the famous "Teacher Table": "Pro-virtuous ministers, far villains, this ancestor is so prosperous; Pro-villain, Yuanxian Chen, after that, the Han Dynasty fell into decline. When the first emperor was there, whenever he discussed this matter with his ministers, he did not sigh and hate Yu Huan and Lingye. The last "Heng" refers to the current Emperor Heng of the Han Dynasty.

However, after hearing about his experience, I can understand a little bit about his inadequacy. He ascended the throne at the age of fifteen, and was regarded as a child emperor, and after ascending the throne, he has always been the Empress Dowager Liang's court, so the Liang family has also increased its power greatly, and it is so arrogant that even the emperor does not pay attention to it, which is often said in history as the "dictatorship of foreign relatives".

But of course, the emperor is not so easy to sit still, there is another force in the court, which has always been a weapon used by the emperor to confront his relatives, this is the eunuch group. Although their strength is not as strong as that of their relatives, they have been secretly expanding. The "Digging Troupe" we encountered before was actually a spy organization set up by the eunuch forces in the people.

When I heard this, I also deliberately joked with my father: "It turns out that the Digging Ying Troupe is an organization made up by eunuchs, are you the same as Dad?" ”

The joke ended with him smacking me on the head with a cigarette pouch.

Wang Shaoting also talked to me a lot about things like the official system of the dynasty, but I basically didn't listen to it. When I was in school, I always slept in history class, and I always felt that those things had nothing to do with me, and they were far less interesting than those folk things.

But I still figured out what the Taifu Mansion was doing, to put it bluntly, it was the advisory group of the royal family, and there was only one person called "Taifu", who was the head of the advisory group. Originally, under normal circumstances, the prince would also serve as the prince's teacher, but now not to mention that there is no prince, the emperor doesn't even have a son, so there is no room for this function for the time being.

Knowing these backgrounds, and now that I have walked into the palace and seen everything that is luxurious but rigid, my envy for the emperor's profession has completely vanished. In addition to eating well and dressing well, this emperor is simply a prisoner, but compared with ordinary prisoners, this prisoner is more fond of killing.

The little eunuch took me all the way for a long time, and came to a side hall in the west, with its name written on the top of the gate with a gold-lettered signboard, but unfortunately I am basically illiterate now, except for the word "palace" can be guessed, the other two words are not known at all! There are eight guards guarding the door, before entering the door, there are still various searches and interrogations, it seems that I still want to be simple, this goes inside, it is estimated that it will inevitably be checked and checked, this wants to see the emperor, it is really not an ordinary trouble!

After the inspection, two guards stepped forward and pushed the door of the side hall open, the wooden door moved, making a "squeak" noise, and the light from outside suddenly shone into the relatively dark hall, when I saw the situation inside, I was stunned for a moment.

This hall is about more than 200 square meters in size, and it is almost full of people, and when they hear the sound of the door opening, they can't help but look back at me in unison. I saw that among these people, there were men and women, old and young, tall and short, fat and thin, some who looked so ordinary that they could barely remember, and there were also people who were dressed in very unusual costumes that were unforgettable, and there were many people dressed as Taoist priests.

I stepped over the high threshold and entered, and as soon as I stood still, the door slammed shut behind me. The interior has returned to a gray tone, which looks a little oppressive.

On the highest platform in front of the hall, there was a father-in-law, who seemed to be talking about something, probably because I was late, and seemed quite displeased, and shouted to me: "This lord is such a big shelf, you only came here at this hour, what kind of place are we?" ”

I'm used to being scolded for being late, so I quickly put my hands together, nodded and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I met an old woman on the road who got lost and sent her home, so it's a little late, you continue, just don't exist when I don't exist......"

Hearing this nonsense, the crowd burst into laughter. My father-in-law frowned, but as if he was too lazy to break with me, he picked up the silk book in his hand and continued to preach.

Sure enough, the wording of this official document is so difficult that I listened to it for a long time, and I only understood a general idea, simply put, the emperor is putting gold on his face, and flaunting this competition as a grand event to promote cultural development and promote all kinds of talents.

With all the nonsense out of the way, it's probably time to get into the topic. The old eunuch first glanced around the crowd for a moment, and then said solemnly: "Now let's talk about the rules of the game, I will only say it once, you have to listen well." ”

The crowd, which had been a little noisy just now because the content was boring, suddenly fell silent, and everyone pricked up their ears to hear what he had to say.

I just heard him say aloud: "The winner of this competition will get a big reward, I think you all know, but what will happen to the loser, maybe many people don't know yet, now I will tell you......"

The following words, which he uttered slowly and clearly, word by word, said: "Loser, die!" “