Changqiu Palace, Feixiang Palace.

Empress Han sat alone in the secret room on the east side of the main hall, smelling the smell of corpses.

Suddenly, hearing the sound of footsteps, the queen turned around sharply and saw the maidservant Han Ju walking in with two baskets of ice. The ice was heavy, and the maid was so tired that she gritted her teeth and sweated.

"Ju'er has worked hard."

"Oh, doing things for the queen is a blessing for slaves, how dare you say hard."

"Hey, you've followed me since you were a child, and you haven't enjoyed a few days of happiness. On the contrary, I still have to rely on you for every big event......"

As she spoke, the queen gathered her already shiny sideburns. Perhaps, this habit was left over from when she was in the cold palace.

The years make people old. Even a woman like Queen Han who has captivated the country and the city can't bear the ravages of time. She is just over forty years old, showing that she is old beyond her years. Full of gray hair and deep crow's feet at the corners of the eyes. With a tall nose bridge and thin skin, the bridge of her nose seems to be transparent in the side light. The cloudy eyes looked at the corpse of Emperor Tiande in the secret room hollowly. The corpse had begun to stink, and it was impossible to hide it.

The emperor has collapsed, and the secret is not mourned. There are very few people who know about this matter, and the queen can't move the crowd to transport a coffin into the Changqiu Palace, so hide the emperor in the reclining cabinet. Chilled with ice cubes.

"Mother, just put the ice cubes in the reclining cabinet, and it will melt away soon."

"So what?"

"When the slaves went to buy ice, they saw that some people put the bedding in a small box, and then wrapped the ice cubes in the bedding and sealed the lid of the box."

"Is there such a thing in the world? The bedding is meant to keep warm, so wouldn't it melt faster if you put ice cubes in it? The queen frowned and thought for a while, and said, "I understand, the bedding is warm and cold." Well, then do what you do. ”

Hu Rong led the ceremonial officials to visit the martial arts competition held in Qinghuafang, where Empress Han and the palace maid Han Ju stuffed the emperor's stiff body into a reclining cabinet. The emperor was too long to fit in the cabinet, so the queen asked the palace maid to stand on the emperor and trampled the emperor's corpse. Then pour the ice cubes into the reclining cabinet one by one.

With a bang, the lid of the reclining cabinet was closed and locked, and the queen leaned her back against the reclining cabinet and took a few breaths.

Then she took her hand, which was dressed in fine armor, and stood in the doorway, looking out at the main hall. The eunuchs and palace maids in the main hall were all standing far away in the courtyard at this time. She walked to the door of the main hall and looked out of the hall with a look of anticipation in her eyes.

……

Su Bottle never thought of using martial arts to be noble in front of people, as the old teacher said, martial artists are as hard as steel, but easy to break.

Because of this consideration, I could hear bursts of applause from the audience, and Su Bottle still couldn't see a smile on his face. just politely bowed his hand to everyone, and then he was ready to step down, not intending to fight on the wheels.

But the Tang Clan official stopped Su Bottle and asked him to continue the competition, saying that this was what the second master meant. At this time, the number one master of the Guogong Mansion, the old eunuch Tang Shun, who was usually hidden in the inner courtyard, appeared.

His appearance relieved Su Bottle. And he only used four moves to knock the second Khitan warrior out. When the man fell, he was half numb and couldn't get up.

It is worth mentioning that the reason why four moves were used was because Shun Inner Court gave that person three moves.

It can also be said that Shun Inner Courtyard knocked the samurai to the ground with one move.

The old eunuch's neat and neat moves, with a deep hidden aura, are admirable. And he had shown mercy, if he hadn't poked that person's acupoint with his finger, but instead sent out a sharp sword qi to pierce that person, the Khitan warrior might have died on the spot.

At this time, the Khitan prince sitting in the staircase stand had a gloomy face, and the smug smile he had before was completely gone. Downing, on the other hand, kept a polite smile, only now his smile seemed to have a hint of ill-will.

Of course, this is ill-intentioned in the eyes of the Khitan prince. Bingbu Shangshu was in a good mood at this time, but he didn't deliberately show it on his face, and his smile was the smile he had from the beginning. It's just that when facing Su Bottle, he disappeared for a while.

Seeing that the martial arts of the Shun Inner Court were superb, Yelu Hongji, the seventh prince of Khitan, said something in the ear of the sixth prince Yelu Song, although Ye Lu Song was a little reluctant, he still nodded.

Immediately, Yelu Hongji stood up, imitated the etiquette of the Han people, and hugged his fists at Tang Ning and Hu Rong of the Old Mink Temple: "The master of the Great Liang, my brother has seen it." It's really good. We are here today only to meet friends with force, and we do not necessarily mean to distinguish between high and low. And what I said earlier, if the Tang clan loses, let Princess Changxia marry the sixth brother of my family, it is just a joke made by the queen of your country and us, and we didn't take it seriously. ”

Hearing this, Tang Ning maintained his usual smile: "The meaning of the seventh prince is ......"

Yelu Hongji smiled: "In my opinion, let's stop at the point, there is no winner or loser today." ”

Tang Ning laughed and said, "Wonderful, so wonderful. ”

At the end of the competition, the Tang clan arranged a grand drinking party, but the two Khitan princes refused. They have stayed in Luoyang for more than ten days, completed the mission of this trip, and are ready to return to China with New Year's coins.

In previous years, the New Year's coins were sent to the Liao State by the Liang Dynasty on their own initiative, but this year was different, the Liang Dynasty went to war with the Sangla people, fell into the quagmire, and the treasury was empty, so they did not send the money. The two Khitan princes came, so to speak, to force debts, or to write a war letter. - If the Liang Dynasty does not give money, our iron horsemen will rush out of Yanyun and drink the Yellow River.

"Report to Master Hou, the cattle and sheep have been slaughtered, and the vegetables, vegetables and wine have been ......."

"I see."

The envoy left, and the ceremonial officials sent by the imperial court also left, Tang Ning no longer disguised, and his face sank like water: "Now that you are ready, you can withdraw it, and let's hold a banquet in the name of 'rewarding warriors'." ”

It is a crime for the people to kill cattle, but no one cares about the cattle killed by the gate valve, not to mention that this cocktail party was originally for state guests.

Then the butler asked, "Who is invited?" Downing said that only relatives within the three blessings will be entertained. He also sent an invitation, inviting King Fu, King Xian, King Rui, and King Yu to come to the banquet, and then go to summon Meng Qi, the third son of the Meng family, and Ximen Zaipei, the sixth son of the Ximen family.

But the invitation was sent, and none of the four princes came. It's not that the princes don't give Tang Ning face, but I heard that the four of them have already left the city and gone to Luoyang Baguan. Luoyang Eight Passes, each pass stationed 10,000 Xuanjia troops, I really don't know why they all suddenly ran to the army.

Tang Ning seemed to smell a hint of instability, but he didn't say anything, just chatted with Meng Qi and Ximen Zaipei, talked about today's martial arts competition, and talked about it with relish.

The nobles sat in the main hall room, while the samurai seats were arranged in the outhouse. Among the six injured, only Gao Zhun came to the banquet, because he was holding his breath and protecting his heart at that time, and he was not seriously injured. And the other five people, all recuperating at home, have no heart to eat and drink. Although he came to the banquet, today's defeat still made Gao Zhun feel that he had lost face, and he couldn't raise his head.

The swordsman Mi Qing was with Wuding Hou Tangning at this time, and Gao Zhun sat down alone, drinking stuffy wine. Today's first meritorious minister, Shun Inner Courtyard, did not come to the drinking party, and not long after, Gao Zhun saw a young man walk in. The man was dressed in a blue satin robe, with a black coat on his shoulders and a black scarf on his head, followed only by a small flower jacket.

In other words, this young master of the Su family is good-looking, kind, and kind, and he has to say hello to the slaves and maids at the door. Just this action made Gao Zhun have a good impression of him.

When Su Bei saw Gao Zhun, the two sang to each other and let each other sit down. Looking at the table of wine and meat, Su Bottle smiled, patted the side, and asked Xiao Tao to sit down and eat.

Xiao Tao said that if the slave really sat down to eat, I was afraid that she would be beaten to death by the ceremonial officer.

"So serious?"

"My uncle doesn't know the strictness of the "Tang Family Law", and he must not exceed the rules."

Su Bottle could see that the little maid was gluttonous, staring at a piece of big fat meat, and she couldn't take her eyes off. It's a coincidence, Su Bottle doesn't like to eat fatty meat, so he sliced the fat meat with a knife, cut it into mahjong pieces, put it on a small plate, and handed it to Xiao Tao standing behind him. Let her eat standing up.

The little maid took it beautifully, peeked around and quickly grabbed a few bites, then put down the plate again, and stood up in an orderly manner again. Su Bottle was eating and drinking, but she felt the little girl's hand touch the table from time to time, "stealing" a piece of fat that had been given to her, putting it in her mouth, and chewing it carefully.

All this did not escape Gao Zhun's eyes, Gao Zhun raised his wine glass and said, "Uncle Guan is a man of temperament. A certain high standard, a cup of respect to my uncle. ”

Su Bottle immediately raised his glass and drank in respect.

In fact, there were not many men at this banquet, but many women. Because most of the relatives in the Sanfu of the Guogong Mansion are serving in the Shence Army, they are fighting in the Longyou region at this time, not in Luoyang.

The ladies and men were not in the same room, but in the inner house of the Marquis, under the leadership of the Marquise, they sang poems against each other, sang wine orders, played and ate wine. There was the clumsy woman, who always made mistakes, and was now half drunk.

Miss Six didn't come to the party, but she didn't stop Su from coming to eat. The little guy in the Marquis's Mansion came to deliver the message, and Su Bei came with Xiao Tao, and he also got acquainted with Gao Zhun. Su Bottle said that if he hadn't given up using the sword, the Khitan warrior would never be the opponent of Brother Gao. Hearing this, Gao Zhun burst into tears and said that Su Bottle was an expert.

When it got dark, Su Bottle said goodbye to Gao Zhun and left the table leisurely. Take the little peach and go home with the pieces of meat wrapped in yellow paper. came to the gatehouse and gave a bag of meat to the red-shirted little girl Feng Die. Feng Die accepted it shyly and smiled sweetly.

When he walked to the second courtyard, he had the intention to give the other two bags of meat to Tang Wan and Tang Ting, but he was worried that Miss Six would know, because Xiao Tao said that the nobles would leave the table without leftovers, and if this matter was known by the young lady, it would have to be a handbreaker. But Su Bottle still cut the beef and brought it back, and seemed indifferent to the "Tang Family Law".

It was raining, Su Bei took Zhu Tao and walked quickly to the backyard, and suddenly heard a "snap" sound from Qinxiang Xiaozhu......