……

In the center of the main courtyard of the Prince's Mansion, two red carpets are neatly laid, starting from the entrance, bypassing the flower beds and extending to the high platform that has been erected.

On the left and right sides of the red carpet, a group of ministers of the current dynasty stood in twos and threes, laughing and chatting with each other about recent state affairs.

For example, there was another conflict between the church and the royal court of the Golden Horde due to the ruling authority, and the signs of civil strife had already begun, and a certain heavyweight high priest in the Holy See even declared in public that the Holy See was the Holy See of the world, and the future of the royal court could only be limited to this grassland, which caused the anger of a group of royal families of noble blood.

There is also the recent incident in the Hundred Clans Alliance, the branch stronghold of the totem church of the cult organization was uprooted, and the leader of them turned out to be the marquis of the royal court, and this result made the generals of the royal court who had been committed to exterminating the cult very ugly, and ordered a thorough investigation.

Of course, compared to the Golden Horde, the most discussed by these officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty was, of course, the Great Xia Dynasty.

The Great Xia Dynasty has tried to reform in the near future, should my Zhou Dynasty also learn with an open mind, the fisherman of the Great Xia Dynasty has not shown up for several months, is there something unexpected in the forbidden land, should you take this opportunity to tear up the peace treaty in order to repay the shame of the land reparation?

Before the banquet began, the courtyard was noisy, and the content of the conversation varied, but in general, almost all of them were related to national affairs.

Li Zao stood in an inconspicuous corner of the courtyard, listening to the nonsense of these ministers, while looking for Zhou Yuan's figure in the crowd, but he didn't even see a figure after looking for a long time.

Zhou Yuan hasn't come yet.

A trace of coldness flashed in Li Zao's eyes, and it was time for the banquet to start in two hundred and seventy-three breaths, and if Zhou Yuan hadn't come yet, then he would have tore up the marriage book, because she hated unpunctual men the most.

Of course, if Zhou Yuan was deliberately late on this day and wanted to give the eldest prince a horse, Li would have tore up the marriage letter a long time ago, because this is really a very stupid act, it has no effect except that it can disgust people, but it is easy to make a small evaluation, which is easy for civil officials to look down on.

"Lord Hu doesn't seem to be in such a good state lately, why, this third concubine hasn't passed the door yet, and her body can't bear it?"

Not far from the front of Li Zao's right, there were four or five men gathered, and at this time they were laughing and laughing, surrounding and laughing at one of them.

Hu Yu's face showed a trace of abnormal ruddy, he waved his sleeves angrily, and shouted in a weak voice: "Don't look at me thin, but Lao Tzu's kung fu is better than any of you!" ”

The crowd burst into laughter again, and the air was filled with joy.

"Master Hu, my cousin in the second room sells tonic medicine at home, all of which are good goods collected from the mountains, and the shop is located in the west of the city, do you need me to help you introduce you? Hahahahaha! ”

Hu Yu looked at the tall and fat man with the long beard with a wicked smile on his face, and said angrily: "Lao Tzu doesn't need it!" "I haven't closed my eyes these days, and I want to catch the spies of the Xia Dynasty and go to the court, can I look good!"

As soon as these words came out, the smiles on people's faces suddenly disappeared, and even the other officials who were chatting stopped and looked at him with strange expressions.

Hu Yu's face changed, and he realized that he had said the wrong thing, today is the birthday banquet of His Royal Highness the Prince, and if he mentions such an unlucky thing, he will have a headless reputation at best, if it is serious...... Could it be that he has already sided with the third prince?

Hu Yu's heart trembled, he didn't want to get involved in the battle for the throne so early, so he could only stubbornly continue to sigh and say to the few people in front of him:

"Speaking of those thieves in Great Xia, it's really too evil, after Lao Tzu received the news, he blocked the entrance of the teleportation array as soon as possible, and checked everyone who rode the big array within two hours before and after, but there was no shadow of those five people."

"These days, I've been investigating during the day and at night, and I'm so busy, for what, isn't it just that I'm afraid that so many of our ministers from the DPRK and China will get together today, and those anti-thieves will take the opportunity to make trouble!"

When the man in front of Hu Yu heard this, he nodded, and said very approvingly: "Lord Hu is indeed not easy, you also have to be careful." ”

"I heard that the spies of Great Xia, but even the valley lord of Plum Blossom Valley was ambushed and died, although the power of the Imperial City Patrol is strong, you also have to pay more attention."

"Who's to say it isn't." Hu Yu sighed worriedly.

Speaking of which, no one answered anymore, and the ministers at their respective places also continued to talk about themselves, and no one cared about Hu Yu anymore.

Li Zao stood not far away, quietly listening to this conversation, the two sang and resolved the crisis together, and the language skills can be said to be top-notch.

Hu Yu said that he was afraid that he was afraid that he would be thought to be on the side of the Three Princes, so he hurriedly said that he was doing all this for everyone's safety, so he reluctantly came back to the words.

And the most important thing is that in the process of explaining, he did not mention the birthday banquet of His Royal Highness the Prince, but only said that they gathered here today, which also cleverly avoided being misunderstood that he was standing in line with the eldest prince.

"-Whew!"

Hu Yu breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the man in front of him, his lips were a little pale.

Emperor Zhou's attitude towards the choice of the heir to the throne was extremely ambiguous.

Before the eldest prince came back from the border pass, almost everyone thought that the last person to sit on the chair was either the third prince or the fourth prince.

But unexpectedly, after the eldest prince left the court for many years, after his sudden return, there were still many old ministers in the court who were willing to support him, and most importantly, the latter was burdened with military merits, mature and steady, and quite an imperial demeanor, and the limelight overshadowed his two younger brothers.

Even, he was named the crown prince.

It seems that the future is bright and unmatched, but Hu Yu knows in his heart that before everything is concluded, civil officials can mess around, but they, ministers with real power, must not stand in line.

Because although Emperor Zhou named Zhou Wuji the crown prince, he did not hold a prince banquet for him.

He didn't even show up for today's birthday party.

You must know that over the years, Emperor Zhou has prepared many banquets for Zhou Yuan's family, and the specifications are not small.

And this is just the contrast between the eldest prince and the third prince, the power of the fourth prince in the court should not be underestimated, the fifth prince has no intention of fighting for power on the surface, he just wants to be a free prince and travel the rivers and lakes, but who knows what kind of strong man he has met in the rivers and lakes, and the second prince who hides in the house all day long to recuperate, is it really weak and sick, or is he in Taoguang?

The more Hu Yu thought about it, the more he felt a headache, so he simply shook his head and said to the man in front of him:

"I just dare to thank Master Cao, if it weren't for your cooperation, I might be in a big trouble."

The tall and fat man who had made fun of Hu Yu before waved his hand, and sighed solemnly: "This is all a trivial matter, you and I are working together under Master Xie, and it is appropriate to take care of each other." ”

"Strange things happen frequently during this time, not only you, but all of us should pay more attention."

"Taught."

The crowd saluted each other and ended the conversation.

Li had already listened to the whole process on the side, and a look of disgust appeared in her eyes, what she hated the most was this kind of so-called human accident between people, because it reminded her of Mei Chuan.

Once she learned these things, she was beaten by Mei Chuan a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot.

The chatter in the main courtyard fell silent again, and Li Zao squinted his eyes and followed the gaze that he didn't know what it meant to look at the entrance of the courtyard.

There stood a young man dressed in an ordinary plain and elegant robe, with beautiful eyebrows and eyes, but his overall facial features were very noble and handsome.

The person who came was the third prince Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan looked at the hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at him in unison, and suddenly said with a smile: "Everyone is watching what I do, I shouldn't be late." ”

"Seventeen breaths left." Li Zao said silently in his heart, Zhou Yuan didn't come late because he didn't come late, but he was stuck in such a limit of time, what does this mean?

"The third brother is diligent, as soon as I come back, you will start the retreat, if you are busy and forget, it is normal to come late."

At this time, the voice of the eldest prince Zhou Wuji also sounded from outside the courtyard, and his words were full of vague mockery.

Zhou Yuan seemed to be unable to hear, and arched his hand to the man standing at the entrance of the courtyard, the eldest brother he hadn't seen for a long time, bowed and saluted: "The third brother has seen the emperor's eldest brother. ”

The officials who had been waiting in the courtyard for a long time also reacted quickly, bowed, and bowed to the door:

"Wait, I've seen the three princes."

"I've seen His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

……