In broad daylight, in full view of everyone, embarrassed and embarrassed to put on shoes and socks to retrieve the sword, Ma Chao sighed a little, no wonder "sword shoes to the palace" can be together with "not to enter the court", "praise and worship" and other graces, become the privilege that the ministers in history are determined to obtain and dream of.

Ma Chao walked quickly outside the palace in the crowd, and from time to time he had to deal with the ministers who took the initiative to come forward to talk and show goodwill. Yuan Kui, Lu Zhi, Ding Gong, Xu Xiang, Liu Yu, Liu Yan, Cao Song and other big names will not surrender their identities to come to talk, and keep their distance from Ma Chao. As for He Jin, he was far away, much earlier than Ma Chao, and walked out of the Chongde Hall with his supporters.

When Ma Chao walked to the opposite side of the Chongde Palace, another minister approached Ma Chao. Ma Chao swept the beam crown and seal ribbon of this person with his spare eyes, and saw that this person was a middle two thousand stones, and he was at the same level as him, with a higher status, and he paid a little attention to it.

The man walked in front of Ma Chao, and Ma Chao also stopped, bowed slightly, and said, "In Fan Ling, Yongle Shaofu, I have seen my feet." ”

Yongle Shaofu, a subordinate official of the Queen Mother, has a high status and not much power, and is basically a fictitious position.

Ma Chao also immediately returned the salute and said, "It turned out to be Fan Shaofu, and I have admired it for a long time." ”

Fan Ling smiled gently: "If you say that you have been looking up for a long time, you don't dare to be in the bottom." On the contrary, I leaned back on my feet for a long time, and I didn't want to step down like folk rumors, young and beautiful. ”

Ma Chao listened to it and was a little disappointed, he thought that Fan Ling, who was the first official to be equivalent to him, would say something different from ordinary people, but he didn't expect him to come to flatter.

Ma Chao said absentmindedly: "Fan Shaofu is polite, it is not as good as the rumors say." ”

Fan Ling turned his head to look around, and saw that there were fewer people, so he suddenly leaned closer and whispered: "The Queen Mother is sending down, please come down to Yongle Palace to pay respects." You can follow quickly. ”

Ma Chao, who was originally absent-minded, immediately became energetic when he heard this. Fan Ling walked in the direction of Chongde Palace, and Ma Chao saw that the people around him had walked out of the palace and entered the palace road, so he quickly followed Fan Ling. Probably Fan Ling arranged it in advance, and after passing through the square in front of the Chongde Hall and walking out of the palace gate in the east, there was no one on the palace road. Ma Chao began to feel uneasy and expectant while following Fan Ling. Empress Dowager Dong was suddenly summoned secretly, and I don't know what she was going to do.

Before Ma Chao could come up with a reason, Fan Ling took him into a palace. Walking into the palace gate, Ma Chao looked up and saw that there was a plaque hanging under the eaves in the center of the main hall, and the plaque was written with three big characters of "Yongle Palace". Ma Chao looked at the splendid queen mother's bedroom, and began to understand why the harem women regarded ascending to the queen mother's position as the highest ideal. Not to mention the system of the dynasty and the heroine of the world, it is enough to make people's hearts surge; Just being able to sit in such a grand palace is enough to make people proud.

Ma Chao looked left and right, unlike when he came, the road was empty, and in the Yongle Palace, there were many palace maids and eunuchs standing. Ma Chao secretly thought that the Queen Mother deliberately tried to empty the eunuchs and palace maids in other places, indicating that she didn't want to leak the news and let people know that she summoned Ma Chao; But only she did not empty the eunuchs and palace maids in her palace, which shows that she is confident that she can completely control the people around her. Ma Chao thought about it, if Empress Dowager Dong couldn't make her bedroom airtight, the second prince Liu Xie, who was protected by her, would have let Empress He be killed a long time ago.

Ma Chao was so engrossed in thinking that he didn't even know when he walked outside the main hall. Fan Ling turned sideways, stretched out his hand and raised it towards the hall, making a "please" posture, signaling Ma Chao to please enter the hall first. Ma Chao saw the bright Yongle Palace from afar, which was the high platform of several levels of Dan Majesty; On the high platform, there is a golden bronze screen, on both sides of the screen stand two palace ladies holding palace fans and light red clothes, and a girl in a red palace costume, and a boy in a snow-white dress; The four of them were surrounded by a gray-haired old woman, who was slightly back to the seat, and her hands were propped up on the handles of the seats, and this gesture, coupled with cold eyes, was thrown at him from afar, and the momentum was domineering; In the palace, there were three other people standing below, two of whom were eunuchs; One of the two eunuchs, Ma Chao felt a little familiar.

Of course, Ma Chao knew that the old woman sitting on the top must be the Empress Dowager Dong of Yongle; But she didn't recognize who the girl and the boy beside her were. The two of them were dressed in a normal color dress that was different from the intercolored clothes worn by lowly people like Gong E, indicating that they were noble.

Ma Chao raised his feet and crossed the threshold, met the scorching eyes of everyone in the hall, strode to the front of His Majesty Dan and in front of the Empress Dowager Dong, saluted like a ceremony, and said loudly: "Minister Guanglu Xun Ma Chao, meet Your Majesty!" ”

In the Han Dynasty, the Queen Mother and the Emperor were addressed to His Majesty; Addressing the queen, princess, prince, and king is addressed to His Royal Highness.

Empress Dowager Dong's old and gentle voice came from top to bottom: "Please get up." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Ma Chao got up and raised his head to look at His Majesty. I saw that Empress Dowager Dong was wrinkled, her lips were dry, and her face was full of vicissitudes of time; The pale hair was pulled into a tall fallen horse bun, and the hair bun was full of dazzling hairpins of various colors of gold beads, shining with majesty and nobility; She was dressed in a wide phoenix-patterned dress, still holding the seat handles with both hands, and looked at Ma Chao from top to bottom with a majestic gaze.

When Ma Chao moved his gaze to the girl on the left of Empress Dowager Dong, he couldn't help but be stunned. First, because this palace girl has an excellent appearance, a slender body, thick black hair combed into a light and agile flying fairy bun, and on the moving face of the country and the city, there is a pair of big sparkling eyes looking at him with a smile; The second is that this face is extremely familiar to him, and after recalling it, Ma Chao recalled that this girl was the little subordinate Cao who kept peeking at him when he led the army into the city that day! At that time, she must have been dressed as a woman, but to Ma Chao's surprise, she had now taken off her disguise and was able to stand beside the Queen Mother!

When Ma Chao looked to the right of Empress Dowager Dong again, he also took the boy into his eyes. I saw that the boy was about six or seven years old, and he was very young and cute. The little face was bright-eyed, blinking, looking at him curiously.

When Ma Chao was still guessing the identities of the two, a smile appeared on Empress Dowager Dong's plain face, and she said, "The old woman guesses, Qing is guessing them-" As she spoke, Empress Dowager Dong stretched out her hands to the left and right, holding the hands of the girl and the little boy beside her, "What is your identity, and who is the old woman?" ”

Ma Chao, who was deep in thought and didn't know it, came back to his senses in shock, and quickly lowered his head and confessed: "Your Majesty forgives you!" The minister is indeed guessing the identities of the two nobles. ”

Empress Dowager Dong smiled and said: "Everyone in the world is young and smart, otherwise they will never be able to lead tens of thousands of elite horsemen to win the battlefield with the posture of a young man with tied hair." Could it be that after thinking about it until now, Qing has not guessed it yet? ”