On the night of the third day of the third month of the 35th year, about a change in the weather, the streets of Beijing were already quiet, and it looked particularly gloomy and desolate.

At important street intersections stood soldiers, checking the occasional passerby.

The tall walls of Beijing are very silent, and there are lanterns every few distances.

Last year, the steppe Tatar Mongolian department of He Lizhi broke through the nine-border defense line and crossed the west bank of the canal in Tongzhou, so the Dongzhi Gate and Chaoyang Gate were particularly tight, and the lanterns on the city were relatively dense.

But then He Lizhi retreated, and the lanterns were not removed, illuminating this section of the city wall a little brighter.

If someone stands at the head of the city and looks, they will find that there are dots of lights flickering in the direction of the imperial city, among which the Chengqian Palace is even brighter, and the emperor who has been cultivating for a day will deal with the recitals handed by the cabinet here every night.

The Emperor Zhizheng of the Great Wei Dynasty is about in his early fifties this year, and he has not been in the court for more than ten years, and he has been staying in the palace to cultivate the Tao.

Emperor Zhizheng's face was fair, but because of his age, several deep crow's feet had appeared in the corners of his eyes, and his eye sockets were also a little dark, especially under the illumination of several palace lamps, he looked pale and haggard.

Since ten years ago, the Great Wei Dynasty has experienced frequent natural disasters and civil unrest, which has tormented the old emperor who is bent on cultivating and immortalizing.

There is no way, cultivating immortals has to be cultivated, but the state also has to be managed, so in the dead of night, everyone else has already gone to bed, and he, the emperor, has to [work hard].

Seeing that the situation in the country is getting more and more difficult, day by day chaos is like a day, and all kinds of documents sent to the palace fall like snowflakes on the imperial case every day, Emperor Zhizheng has long been worn out of patience.

There are too many documents today, and the General Administration Department is afraid that the emperor will not be able to read it and miss important information, so he intimately adopted the method used in the Song Dynasty, and wrote out the received documents briefly on yellow paper and pasted them in front, which is called [Yinhuang], and then used yellow paper to write out the content summary and paste it at the back, which is called "Paste Yellow",,

In this way, the emperor can first read the yellow and paste yellow, and the less important ones do not have to read the full text in detail.

However, there is no need to paste and introduce yellow for the emergency military intelligence and the Tang newspaper, because these are sorted out by the eunuchs of the General Administration Department and the celebrant supervisor, and placed at the top of all documents for the emperor's reference.

Emperor Zhizheng felt a little tired today, so he asked the eunuch He Xian to read the song Shu and Tang Bao to him and draw up a decree for him.

But he did not dare to trust his henchmen and eunuchs to his left and right, and often suspected that they were colluding with the courtiers and kept him in the dark.

So after He Xian read the two letters, he struggled to sit up straight, took a Tang newspaper and read it himself.

After looking at it for a while, he frowned and said, "Who is on duty tonight?" ”

He Xian immediately knelt down and replied: "Tonight, it is Qin Shoufu who is on duty!" ”

"Go and call him!" Emperor Zhizheng used a red pen to sketch on the letter and commanded.

After a while, an old man dressed in a crane supplement uniform walked into the Chengqian Palace with the support of the little eunuch.

As soon as he entered the door, the old man had to kneel and kowtow.

Emperor Zhizheng waved his hand impatiently and said, "Excuse me!" ”

Shoufu Qin Yan slowly stood up with his knees propped up.

Before he could stand up, Emperor Zhizheng asked, "Yangzhou prefect Zhou Yi is your protégé, right?" ”

When the old man heard this, he replied in a hoarse voice: "The officials of the Great Wei Dynasty are all His Majesty's courtiers!" ”

Emperor Zhizheng raised his eyelids, looked at Qin Yan, and was noncommittal to his words, and then continued: "Your protégé impeached the new Huaiyan Salt Transportation Division, and Xue Cao, the transportation judge of the Huainan Branch, colluded with bandits and robbed the salt tax, but fortunately, Hailing Zhixian led a county military and civilians to guard the inspection office!" Do you know this? ”

Qin Yan nodded and said, "Today's minister has already seen Zhou Yi's recital!" ”

"What do you think I'm going to approve of this?" Emperor Zhizheng leaned back slightly, leaning back on the chair, because the light was blocked by the curtain, and his face seemed dull and uncertain.

Qin Yan replied without any hesitation: "Back to Your Majesty, I heard that this gang of thieves just broke through Taixing County a few days ago, killing officials and robbing the county treasury. ”

He paused and continued: "The old minister thinks that first of all, the military department of Nanzhili should issue a document to mobilize the soldiers and horses of the prefectures and counties to encircle and suppress the bandits. This is one of them; Second, the Criminal Department, together with the Jinyi Guard, sent people to take Xue Caoti to Beijing and interrogate him strictly! ”

Decent operation, the old emperor didn't hear anything from Qin Yan's words, but just now the eunuch He Xian had already reminded him that Xue Cao was a student of the second assistant, and with the recent intensification of the party struggle in the imperial court, as a student of the first assistant, he impeached the student of the second assistant, which had to make him suspect that this matter was unusual.

But the emperor's professional sensitivity did not find any clues of party strife in Qin Shoufu's words, so he said with a cold face: "Jun Xun vacated the space, and he should go to Bishan's house." The water licks the mica, and the wind sweeps the heather flowers. If you love seclusion, invite you to make Zixia. It is an eventful time for the imperial court now, and Mr. still has to work a lot, don't disturb my Dao heart! ”

Qin Yan hurriedly lowered his head and said "yes".

After coming out of the Chengqian Palace, Qin Yan sat on the shoulders of the two brocade-clothed wrestlers and was silent.

As soon as he arrived at the duty house, Gong Youwei, a member of the middle school, greeted him and whispered: "Boss, just now the eldest prince and His Royal Highness the King of Qi have come to ask about the situation!" ”

Qin Yan didn't stop and walked straight into the room that belonged to him.

Entering the room, Gong Youwei familiarly helped him sit down in a soft collapse, and then squatted down to help Qin Yan take off his official boots.

It was only then that the old Shousuke looked relaxed.

"You asked someone to inform Lu Yunshen, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, that the old man would hold a banquet in the mansion at noon tomorrow, and ask him to appreciate his face!"

"Go and call Qin Que again and ask him to wait for the old man to return home tomorrow!"

Gong Youwei hurriedly wrote down his retirement, turned around and went out to do errands.

After half an hour, Qin Que yawned and came to the value house.

Seeing the old father sitting on the soft collapse and watching the music by the light, he casually kicked his boots with two feet and went up the soft collapse: "Dad, have I found you over there?" ”

Qin Yan said: "You go to the Qi Palace, tomorrow in person, remember, tell the King of Qi in person, and let his people not come to the palace to look for me in the future, do you hear?" ”

Qin Que's face showed disdain: "The third child is looking for his father today?" I think he's really sick with his brain! ”

Qin Yan glared at him, and then said, "Tomorrow, you entertain Lu Yunshen for me, and let him check whether He Xian, the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, is Xia Yangqiu's person!" ”

Although Emperor Zhizheng cultivated, his personality was very suspicious, and it was normal for him to inquire about the relationship network behind the officials, but tonight He Xianming knew that he was on duty, and he also emphasized to the emperor that the master of the judgment was Xia Yangqiu, the second assistant, so that things would be interesting.

Qin Que is an extremely smart person, and immediately guessed what he meant from his old father's mouth, and he muttered: "What about Yangzhou? ”

Qin Yan looked at the dancing flames on the dwarf, and said to his son after a long time: "Wait for the people from the Criminal Department and Jinyiwei to go to Yangzhou, and ...... in front of them."

Qin Que didn't wait for his father to finish speaking, he immediately nodded and said, "My son knows how to do it!" ”

Qin Yan nodded and said, "It's Li Zhijie over there in Hailing County, right?" ”

Qin Que thought for a while before nodding and saying, "That's right, the subject that my father took the exam six years ago was one hundred and thirty-eight in the second grade!" Just put out. ”

Qin Yan thought for a while and said, "Let the officials give a cadre of Hailing County and wait for the merit." ”

After a pause, Qin Yan said again: "I heard that he also has a student who has made great contributions in this matter?" ”

Qin Que said with a smile: "That's right, I heard that Li Zhijie is a great student, a while ago Lu Yun went to work, and went to Hailing to find the surname Xie, at the reception banquet, this schoolboy named Xu He made a few poems, and the poems were quite good." And the recent recitation in Jingzhong [Don't be afraid of broken bones, you want to leave innocence in the world] was also made by this person. ”

"I'm not afraid of broken bones, I want to be innocent in the world!" Qin Yan recited it once in his mouth, and then said with a smile: "Hehe, things in the world, how can there be anything black and white, and I am worried about giving new words at a young age." ”

"Then ...... this student Li Zhijie?"

"Everyone has been rewarded, it's hard to miss one, you can discuss it!" Qin Yan was a little tired, after saying this, his eyes were already slightly closed, and he fell asleep after a while!