Wu Han, the capital of the dynasty.

In fact, Wu Han was originally just Han, and later the empress succeeded to the throne, so in order to distinguish herself from Han, Wu Han was established.

Imperial Palace, Wu Yan's Sleeping Palace.

"Your Majesty, the minister is guilty!" Ah Qing knelt bare-chested beside Wu Yan's couch, her face frightened.

"Well, get up." Wu Yan put on her clothes, touched her flabby cheeks, looked at the young man with red lips and white teeth in front of her, shook her head and chuckled: "I'm old, you will be like this, it's common sense." ”

"Your Majesty is not old, but a minister...... I'm a little tired today! Ah Qing hurriedly said.

"Arise, innocent." Wu Yan stretched out her hand, hooked Ah Qing's chin, looked at the young man's energetic body, and asked with a smile: "Ah Qing, how many years have you been in the palace?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister was favored by His Majesty at the age of six and raised in the palace for seventeen years." Ah Qing bowed and said.

"I remember your surname is Xue." Wu Yan stood up, walked to the dresser, looked at the old face in the mirror, and sighed: "When I adopted you back then, I still had a little bit of beauty, but unfortunately the years are not forgiving." ”

Xue Qing hurriedly got up, came behind Wu Yan, helped her comb her hair, and said softly when she heard the words: "Your Majesty, if you can get the seal of the mountains and rivers, won't Your Majesty be able to stay young forever?" ”

"Mountains and rivers?" Wu Yan sighed and said, "How easy is it? I don't know where the mission to Daming is now? In my lifetime, I don't know if I'll be able to wait until the day the mission returns. ”

"Your Majesty, isn't the method of obtaining this mountain and river seal already explained by the son of tomorrow?" Xue Qing said curiously.

"It's clear, but if I want to use it, I'm afraid that the ministers of the DPRK and China will not agree." Wu Yan sighed.

Xue Qing was puzzled: "Why is this?" ”

"Why?" Wu Yan sneered: "I am a daughter who is on the throne, and the ministers are already dissatisfied, but I am old and have few years to live, so the ministers can tolerate me sitting on this throne, but if there is the law of the king's immortality, this Wuhan One Hundred and Eight Mansions, I am afraid that there will be rebellion all over the place immediately, there are too many people who want to sit in this position, and in the eyes of the hundred officials, the position is not correct, and the slightest change in the world may cause turmoil in the world, don't forget, since the supervisor is gone, it means that the Dao Alliance will become the biggest unstable factor." ”

"So...... Your Majesty wants to turn to Da Ming for help? "Xue Qing understands, there must be Wu Yan's henchmen in the mission.

"Daqian and Wuhan are separated by thousands of miles, at least in the short term, there is no dispute, if he is willing, I am willing to help him contain the rest of the national forces, and under the encirclement and suppression of many families and Dao Alliances of Daqian, he can take advantage of the land of Kyushu and expel the Dao League, this Ming Emperor should have the power to compete with the Dao League."

"What's the matter?" Wu Yan glanced at the little eunuch who appeared at the entrance of the hall, he had been waiting there for a while, and it seemed that he had something important.

"Your Majesty, Sima Gong asks to see you." The little eunuch bowed and said.

"Ask him to wait in the Zhaowen Palace." Wu Yan stood up and said.

"Yes!" The little eunuch agreed, bowed back a few steps, and then turned to leave.

"You and I will go with you to meet Sima Gong." Wu Yan put on a yellow robe under Xue Qing's service, and stretched out a hand.

"This ...... Your Majesty, it's not appropriate, right? Xue Qing was overjoyed in his heart, and hurriedly lowered his head, not daring to let Wu Yan see his expression.

"You are not a eunuch, you are twenty-three years old, you should also enter the office, if I guessed correctly, Sima Xian came this time, he should have come for this imperial examination." Wu Yan said with a smile as she walked.

Xue Qingqiang endured the joy in his heart and said suspiciously: "As far as the minister knows, there are no descendants or protégés of the Sima family to participate in this scientific expedition. ”

"Yes, no, but there are other surnames, but this year's champion was won by a businessman, and naturally some people will be dissatisfied." Wu Yan recalled for a moment: "I remember that the child's name is Li ......."

"Li Xiude, both civil and military, not only the first in the literary list, but also the first in martial arts, so His Majesty appointed this person to be the champion." Xue Qing hurriedly said.

"Yes, this is the kid." Wu Yan smiled: "People are old, this memory is much worse than when I was young, I remember that when I was a concubine for the first emperor, the dossier was unforgettable, but now...... Alas~"

"Your Majesty has a heart of hills and valleys, and if you remember more things in your chest, it will naturally be slower, if you say that what Your Majesty learned in his chest when he was young is a river, and now it is an endless sea." Xue Qing said with a smile.

Wu Yan smiled, didn't speak, with Xue Qing's support, all the way to the Zhaowen Palace, there was already an old minister waiting in the hall, it was Sima Xian, the prime minister of Wu Han Dynasty, and Jiang Song who was the big cadre back then, Sima Xian was the head of the top gate valve in Wu Han, and he deserved to be under one person.

"Sima Gong doesn't need to be polite." Wu Yan stretched out her hand and helped her, and said with a smile: "You and I have also been close friends for many years, and now that there are no outsiders present, there is no need for those red tapes." ”

Sima Xian glanced at Xue Qing quietly, and saw that he didn't mean to leave, and knew in his heart that he had never let Xue Qing be by his side in the past, but now that Xue Qing is not leaving, Wu Yan has no intention of picking people, and he probably understands Wu Yan's thoughts.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Sima Xian got up.

"Why did Sima Gong think of coming to find me today?" Wu Yan sat on the throne, looked at Sima Xian and smiled.

"I didn't dare to disturb Your Majesty, but today's matter is indeed a bit serious." Sima Xian bowed.

"Oh?" Wu Yan looked at Sima Xian: "What's the matter?" ”

"The country of Yue has been frequently in the border recently, and the six provinces in the southwest have sent back seven urgent reports in January, asking the imperial court to send more troops and horses to the border, but last year's floods, the treasury has been empty, and the imperial court is now short of food, and the minister came to discuss this matter with His Majesty." Sima Xian said solemnly.

"I also know that in the past year's floods, in order to help the victims, the imperial court has already levied some more taxes on the people, and if the taxes are increased again, I am afraid that it will cause turmoil in various provinces." Wu Yan nodded and said in a deep voice.

"Your Majesty, the minister also thinks that it is inappropriate to raise taxes on the people, but the border is urgent, and the minister has a plan to solve the urgent need." Sima Xian bowed.

"What does Aiqing think?" Wu Yan asked with a smile.

"Gao Jian can't talk about it, but the minister remembers that the southeast seven provinces are thriving, but there are many suspicions of tax evasion, the minister thinks that the southeast seven provinces can increase a commercial tax, and then send people to check the tax, where there is tax evasion, will not be tolerated, so can solve the urgent need." Sima Xian bowed.

"It's also a method, this trader evades taxes, and now when it comes to the time for the court to use the money, if they are willing, then it is naturally easy to say, but if they are unwilling, it is no wonder that the law is unforgiving, and the officials of the various provinces must also investigate thoroughly, and they cannot get out of this matter." Wu Yan was the first to say.

"Obey." Sima Xian bowed.

After chatting some more about family life, Sima Xian said goodbye and left the palace.

"Your Majesty, it seems that Sima Gong didn't mention the matter of Li Xiude." Xue Qing looked at Wu Yan suspiciously.

"You're still shallow." Wu Yan shook her head: "You go to check, where does Li Xiude's family live and what kind of industry does he do?" ”

"Yes." Xue Qing agreed, turned around and left, and an hour later, Xue Qing returned to Wu Yan's side with a somewhat strange face, and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, that Li Xiude's family is in Linjiang Mansion, which is the richest of the seven mansions in the southeast, and the family is engaged in silk weaving business. ”

"Look at it, then Li Xiude is about to be unlucky." Wu Yan sighed with emotion: "I originally thought that they just wanted to fight for a manor, but now it seems that they are more anxious than me. ”

"Your Majesty, how can we protect this Li Xiude?" Xue Qing said curiously.

"Why do you want to protect it?" Wu Yan asked rhetorically.

"Isn't that the talent you're looking for?" Xue Qing wondered.

"There are many talents in the world, Li Xiude is young and vigorous, he doesn't know how to hide his edge, look at it, it won't be long before something happens, and Sima Xian will make a move, I'm afraid I won't be able to forgive his mistakes when the time comes." Wu Yan said with emotion.

This also blames himself, if he hadn't wanted to establish a women's court back then, which caused him to lose the opportunity to cultivate henchmen, he wouldn't have been so tightly controlled by these gate valves now, and he was still too young at that time.

……

The capital of Wuhan was originally called Qingdu, and later the empress Wu Yan succeeded to the throne, not only changed Korea to Wuhan, but also changed this Qingdu to Wudu, although it was also quite meteorological, but compared with the Tiandu of the year, it was still a little less courageous.

The green qi in the sky only condensed thirty-six Confucian statues, which was much worse than the original sky, but the woman in this Changle Fang was no worse than the Oiran with a strong spring mood back then.

"The red-sleeved girl seems interested over there?" Lu Feng took a sip of wine first, hugged the woman in his arms, looked at a group of talkative scholars in the distance, and asked with a smile.

I don't know if it's time to say it's not the right time, just in time for the release of the list of martial arts, the women in Changle Fang want to get around those candidates on the list, and want to let the Oiran accompany them, and the price is five times more than usual before inviting one.

Sure enough, money is still a little insufficient in front of power.

"The guest officer laughed, but I heard that the champion of this department is coming to this Changle Fang today, and the slave family is a little curious." The Oiran named Red Sleeves poured a glass of wine for Lu Fengxian and explained with a chuckle.

"It seems that I, a layman, disturbed the Yaxing of the red-sleeved girl." Lu Fengxian looked at the noisy students below, got up and said, "In this way, the girl will accompany me to take a look, I also want to see what this champion looks like, and he is talented." ”

"Guest officer, Red Sleeves doesn't mean that." Seeing Lu Feng get up first, Red Sleeves hurriedly apologized.

"The girl doesn't have to be like this, I really want to see it, let's go, let's go down and find a table to have a look, it's I want to go, it has nothing to do with the girl." Lu Fengxian pulled up his red sleeves and said with a smile.

As an Oiran, there should be professional ethics, people spend money to ask you to accompany you, in front of others to say that they want to see other men, even if it is true, it is also against professional ethics, red sleeves naturally dare not agree, but Lu Fengxian insisted on pulling her to see, and his heart is also secretly happy, this beauty loves talents since ancient times, in fact, ugly girls also love, but no one cares, although this guest looks a little rude, but he is a woman who understands the heart and knows the warmth and cold, if you want to spend the night in Changle Fang later, you can ask him to stay overnight......

(End of chapter)