The emperor was not in the main hall of Chaohuayuan at this time, Li Congyuan followed the four rats all the way through the verandah next to the side hall, went out from an arch full of begonia trees, and went around to a hillside, the hillside was mostly pines and cypresses, reflecting the maple forest in the distance like fire, but it became more and more verdant and lush.

Walking up the stairs, Li Congyuan finally saw a young man sitting in the pavilion, wearing a straight-fitting robe with narrow sleeves, as if he had just returned from riding a horse, his expression was calm, and it was very different from the past.

The two big eunuchs, a chicken and a three cats, were waiting carefully.

The three cats half-knelt on the ground to change the dressing on the wound on His Majesty's hand, and said softly:

"The emperor is so concerned about his body, where can he hold the reins if his hands are not good?"

Pulling his hand back, His Majesty raised his eyebrows: "A little injury, I can't enjoy it." ”

Li Congyuan knew at a glance that it was His Majesty's hand injury that had not healed, so he was in a hurry to ride the horse, but he was involved in the injury.

Seeing Li Congyuan coming, His Majesty waved his hand, and the three cats went down with the medicine box.

Li Congyuan saluted, and before he could speak, he heard His Majesty ask himself directly: "Do you think Chen Shouzhang deserves to die?" ”

He immediately understood what the eunuch of the four rats said to him just now, His Majesty has indeed changed, in the past, His Majesty would only say "I want Chen Shouzhang to die", and in order to let His Majesty take back his life, the cabinet could only retreat and retreat elsewhere, and he would reluctantly let go until His Majesty was satisfied.

Now, His Majesty has changed his approach, and he is a little confused when he wants to bargain.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that even though Chen Shouzhang is a little frivolous and a little indulgent in his words, it is also, yes, because of his temperament, he is always guilty of not death."

"I think so, too."

At the age of six, he was called a prodigy, entered the palace and talked with the emperor about "Rites", at the age of sixteen, he entered the Hanlin Academy, and since then he has been on the rise, but at the age of thirty-five, he was appointed as a bachelor in the East Palace, and he is only forty-nine years old.

Your Majesty, what are you talking about?

It's not that what His Majesty said is unreasonable, it's just that ...... Li Congyuan vaguely remembered that the last time His Majesty was so "reasonable" was when he was eight years old, he said that he wanted to study hard and be a virtuous king, but he found someone else to do the homework article on his behalf, and he played with the eunuchs for an afternoon.

At this time, Li Congyuan almost couldn't help but want to leave the palace immediately and go to Jinyiwei's prison to see if Chen Shouzhang had been secretly executed.

Shen Shiqing, who posed as the emperor, did not look at Li Congyuan, but looked at the painting scroll in front of her, just now she tried to ride a horse, Emperor Zhaode himself is good at riding and shooting, and the riding skills she was taught by her mother when she was a child have almost been forgotten, but fortunately, she still remembers how to ride a horse in this body, and as soon as she sits on the horse, her waist and abdomen naturally relax, without any tension, her legs are strong, and her arms are relaxed, so she is naturally good at riding.

In this way, even if she is a little rusty in riding, she can be excused by the injury on her hand.

Solved another matter, she also has leisure to appreciate the painting, the royal supervisor sent a few paintings of court painters, mostly flowers and birds, the painting skills are naturally first-class, but there are a lot of ingenuity, read a few, Shen Shiqing's favorite is a pine forest picture, the brushstrokes are delicate and do not lose the pine forest style, the artistic conception is far-reaching, it can be a masterpiece.

Of course, the green color synthesized from the green salt (1) mixed with the best malachite also made Shen Shiqing, who is good at pigments, like it very much.

"I don't want to kill Chen Shouzhang, because I don't want to have no one in the court who dares to talk about the suffering of the people in the future."

Li Congyuan paused and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty Shengming." ”

Shengming?

Shen Shiqing glanced at Li Congyuan, and then looked back at the painting.

"I have already sent Jinyi Wei to Dengzhou to thoroughly investigate what Chen Shouzhang said. When there is a result, we will discuss how to deal with him. I called you here because I had something to ask you. ”

The young man sitting on the stone bench spoke kindly, but Li Congyuan's heart tightened.

Ever since His Majesty ascended the throne, speaking to him in such a consultative tone has been nothing more than for three things: to kill people, to fight wars, and to build palaces.

None of these three things can make people worry, I found him in advance to discuss, and said that he would not kill Chen Shouzhang, but I was afraid that he, a scholar, would come forward to be scolded by those imperial historians for His Majesty.

That's it, if Chen Shouzhang can be saved, what if he gives up two steps to His Majesty and receives some scolding?

Scholar Li and Li Dashangshu, who were quite deep in the city, secretly breathed a sigh of relief, preparing to face a new round of onslaught from His Majesty the Emperor, but heard His Majesty ask him:

"Zhang Qi has been a four-rank general for less than two years, but he has saved a net worth of tens of thousands of taels of silver, where did the money come from?"

This is what Shen Shiqing didn't understand after reading the Jinyi Wei report.

According to the military system of the Dayong Dynasty, Zhang Qi's actual position is Peng Chengwei's command, and there are commanders above, Peng Chengwei is only more than 5,000 people, and the commander knows that he has won the hearts of the army, so he transferred 2,000 people to him to be in charge, and in two years, the money and food allocated to Peng Chengwei are not as good as what he earns from greed, even if he knocks these two thousand people to the bone and sucks the marrow, how can he save so much money?

She looked at Li Congyuan, but saw Li Congyuan looking at her in surprise.

A chicken on the side hurriedly whispered: "Li Shangshu? The emperor asked you something. ”

"Ah......" Li Congyuan felt out of shape, and hurriedly lowered his head and sleeves to cover up a little, "The money obtained from that deed, on the one hand, is to fill his own pockets from the embezzlement of military salaries, and on the other hand, it is from the encroachment of military land......"

Seeing that His Majesty had been quietly watching himself and listening to himself, Li Congyuan only felt a sense of relief spontaneously, and he spoke in more and more detail, from the military system since the founding of Dayong to the current situation that it is difficult to maintain the military fields of various guards.

This said, it was endless, the place where the two of them spoke was transferred from the Moxin Pavilion to the side hall of Chaohuayuan, and in the middle, they also had dinner together, Li Congyuan's temperament was quite uninhibited, and as he spoke, seeing that His Majesty the Emperor listened carefully, he simply talked about the entire branch of the Dayongwei Office to Yutu.

He is well-read and knowledgeable, and he keeps all the documents in his heart, and he is very familiar with the amount of income and expenditure everywhere.

By the time he finally finished speaking, the lights in Chaohuayuan had already turned on.

"Thank you Li Shangshu."

"Emperor Zhaode" smiled lightly and thanked him.

Li Congyuan noticed that there was no perfunctory meaning in it, and he was relieved for a while, and he couldn't wait to live in the palace immediately, and take advantage of His Majesty's rare studious time to tell him what he should have said before.

He planned to do his best, but Shen Shiqing had no intention of letting a quasi-Shoufu die of exhaustion in Xiyuan, and just when Li Congyuan saluted and retreated, the lights were brilliant, illuminating his sideburns with a little gray hair.

Shen Shiqing's heart moved lightly with the candle flame.

"Li Shangshu."

Hearing His Majesty's call, Li Congyuan stopped his steps back.

It's coming, it's coming! Your Majesty has endured his temperament and been a good student for a day today, how big a basket is this going to poke?

Li Congyuan even began to think about begging for bones at this moment.

"I heard that the famous people in Beijing will meet in the folding bamboo platform, chant poems against each other, and collect poems and essays, have you ever been there?"

Folding bamboo platform?

Li Congyuan muttered: "The folding bamboo platform that Your Majesty said is an old thing ten years ago, and the minister has not heard of its name for a long time. At that time, a few of my old friends and I were young and vigorous, and we thought that we could make the world's articles new, so we wrote "Folding Bamboo Tai Jixian Collection". ”

After saying that, he smiled.

The emperor, who was sitting at the table, lowered his eyes and said slowly:

"How many old friends? can be friends with Li Shangshu, and they are all pillars of the world. ”

When the pillars of the world?

Some people have lost their official positions and returned home, some people have been sent to the frontier, some people used to be high-spirited and now they are in the twilight, and there are also people who are talented but they don't know where to bury their bones for a long time, only he is still standing in the court, in order to repay the imperial grace of several generations of His Majesty.

All kinds of old things came to Li Congyuan's heart, and he smiled with a little bitterness:

"The ups and downs of the world are unpredictable, gathering and scattering are not for a moment, and when he was young, he also felt that 'all kinds of things are mixed up, and he will be relieved of Peng Yan' (2), and only now do he understand that living for a day is a day, and he can only do a day's things after living a day."

After speaking, Li Congyuan saluted again: "Your Majesty, what else do you command?" ”

The young emperor blinked, and suddenly smiled and said, "No, Li Shangshu should go home early and rest." ”

Is it really gone?

Li Congyuan bowed down and retreated outside the hall, but after all, he never heard the emperor stop him.

Turning around, the peripheral vision of his eyes saw the eunuchs standing on both sides, and Li Congyuan suddenly remembered what the four rat eunuchs said to him in the afternoon.

Your Majesty is different from before?

Your Majesty, it seems, maybe, probably...... Is it really different from what it used to be?

In the Chaohua Palace, Shen Shiqing raised a hand to support the side of his face.

When she was 12 years old, her father asked her to dress up as a boy, pretending to be his nephew, and took her by the hand and took her to the folding bamboo platform.

A group of scribes in green clothes and white robes on the folding bamboo platform didn't care about their official positions or their age, they expressed their hearts and pointed out the country, which opened her eyes when she was young.

Some people beat the drum and chant poems so unhappy, some people write very handsome in the pavilion style, some people hold and look at her paintings and smile and say, "This kid will become everyone in time", and some people hold her in their arms and are a hundred times happier than they are appreciated.

She still remembers that ten years ago, Li Congyuan neither wrote poems nor articles, but only drank alcohol first, and only picked up a pen to write poems on paper when he was drunk.

Li Congyuan is old.

Her father died.

While she was pondering, the three cats walked in with a tray:

"Emperor, the new network has been laid, do you choose one? The slave will hang the chapter back for you. ”

Shen Shiqing raised his eyes and saw more than a dozen strings decorated with different gems and an inch-sized white jade seal on the tray.

The color of the seal is plain white, and the jade quality is very delicate, and it is often rubbed and played with in the hands at a glance.

She picked up the seal, and at a glance, she understood that the seal should have been stained before, not only did the tassels be replaced, but the entire seal was also cleaned and then re-raised with Longquan seal mud for a few days.

"A gentleman is not a weapon."

Looking at the words on the seal, she inexplicably remembered the white hosta that her father had left for her.

Although these two pieces of jade are different in shape and size, the texture is very similar, as if they were carved out of a piece of jade.

The three cats on the side said as if they were meritorious: "The gems paid tribute by Myanmar this year are in excellent condition, the emperor, do you see that this red network is very commensurate with this chapter?" ”

Looking at the injured hand of "Emperor Zhaode", Shen Shiqing suddenly understood how this seal was dirty.

She recalled in her mind the picture of herself stabbing herself with a silver hairpin in the small Buddha hall.

Holding the seal in her hand suddenly, she commanded, "I don't wear it yet, find a box, and put this seal away." ”