November wind, somewhat cold.

In late autumn, winter is approaching, and there are faint snowflakes starting to fall.

In these days, Chang'an City has finally completely restored its stability and prosperity, killed the wealthy family, and cheapened the emperor and the people.

There is no wealthy family to hold back, Emperor Jingming arranged a lot of talented people from poor families, the government decree is smooth, these days using the vast resources, not only to resettle the surrounding area of the disaster victims, give a large number of land and houses to live in, but also to repair the palace wall to more than half, it seems that it is not a dilapidated piece.

But that's all the good news.

The mighty uprising of the prodigal army has completely paralyzed this empire, which is declining day by day, from a state of serious illness and old age.

Previously, the princes from all over the country with the help of King Qin, united with the powerful landlords from all over the country, frantically recruited troops and horses, but at the critical moment, the rapids retreated bravely, did not come to Chang'an City King Qin, and now they are strong and strong, but they are afraid of this crime, even if they openly do not obey the king's order, the court has no way to take them.

The local army of the imperial court has been wiped out, the local government has fallen, and the order cannot leave Chang'an City at all.

And the princes and kings seem to have moved again, and they seem to be keeping to themselves, but secretly they are constantly moving, sharpening their knives.

The edifice will fall, but that's it!

Not to mention those who have a long-term vision, even if the stupid guy is short-sighted, he can see the future of broken mountains and rivers!

At present, the whole world seems to be stable, but in fact, it is just the last stability before the wind and rain are coming.

In the palace study, the stove burned extremely vigorously, and the whole room was in a warm state, isolated from all the wind and cold outside, and the orange-red fire shrouded the two.

Zhao Xuanqi sat in his seat, staring ahead, looking at Emperor Jingming on the Taishi chair.

At this moment, Emperor Jingming sat on the chair, wrapped tightly in a wide and heavy cotton jacket, but even so, he was shivering with cold, coughing constantly, his face was full of overindulgence, and the dark circles under his eyes were very heavy.

Emperor Jingming has already abstained from sex for many years, but how can the damage caused when he was young be so easily repaired, he is about fifty years old, but he looks older than someone in his sixties.

Emperor Jingming coughed for a while, and asked hoarsely: "Does Aiqing know how many troubles there are today?" ”

Zhao Xuanqi roasted the stove and replied seriously: "The troubles of the princes, the rebellion of the vassal kings, the suffering of the people, and the weakness of the court......"

Emperor Jingming sighed, and he slowly said all the calamities in one go:

The princes did not listen to orders, recruited troops, and encroached on each other's land.

The undercurrent of the vassal king surged, training day and night.

The imperial court is declining, and the government decree does not go out of Chang'an......

He told all the sufferings and troubles that had piled up, and told them to the courtier in front of him.

It can be seen that Emperor Jingming did know the critical situation of the country, even better than anyone else, but he couldn't deal with it.

The contradictions of the country were already extremely serious in the period of the first emperor, and now the whole body is full of moths, not one person can change it, and he was also powerless in his early years.

If you are seriously ill, it is okay for you to let the patient live for the rest of the year, or you can live for a few years and reach the end of your life safely, but once you take medicine and want to cure the disease, then you may die instantly and die faster.

In his early years, Emperor Jingming wanted to make great achievements, made many behaviors and policies that were beneficial to the people's livelihood, and wanted to restore the empire to glory, but what was the use of everything?

The country has accumulated disadvantages for a long time, the world is full of chaotic ministers and thieves, all people from wealthy families, no one comes out of the poor, resulting in no one available, all the people entrusted are not people, all the people are traitors, any good policy is below, it is a change of taste, and it has become a policy that brings disaster to the country and the people, but it only exacerbates the contradictions and causes the people to suffer more.

He saw all this clearly, so he was rotten behind him, obsessed with beauty, chose to only seize military power, and left everything else alone, just wanting to control the rotten and broken ship of the empire, and go to the end of his life safely, and finally give a decent ending.

However, in this case, Emperor Jingming didn't expect to meet Zhao Xuanqi.

Zhao Xuanqi suddenly appeared, giving him hope, successfully defending Chang'an City, guarding millions of people, in times of danger, did not abandon the king, but swore to die, loyalty, bravery, benevolence, and righteousness, breaking the army of 500,000 thieves......

Afterwards, he was willing to take the initiative to hand over the military power, and was willing to think about the people and the country......

All this gave Emperor Jingming hope, Emperor Jingming lived for so long, it was the first time he met a good minister worthy of trust, the first time he met a capable minister who could work hard for the country and the people, all the trust was not human, and finally met a person who could be trusted!

Zhao Xuanqi could even seek power and usurp the throne, but he didn't, but was willing to take the initiative to hand over military power......

Everything moved this dying and decrepit emperor, who had lived for so long, and finally met the right person on the day of turmoil in his family and country.

As he spoke, Emperor Jingming was already in tears, perhaps because of the injustice of heaven and earth, or because of the helplessness of the ruined family and country, he took Zhao Xuanqi's hand, and told him that all kinds of troubles in the early years could be difficult, and finally sighed: "I am now dying and decrepit, I am powerless, and my energy is not as good as before, so how can I talk about doing great things?" It would have been nice if I had met Aiqing thirty years earlier! Maybe my family and country won't be reduced to this! ”

The old face is full of unwillingness to the years.

Zhao Xuanqi had mixed tastes, and in the face of the old emperor, he said encouragingly: "Your Majesty is wise and martial, and sooner or later you will be able to recover the mountains and rivers and restore the orthodoxy of the world!" ”

Emperor Jingming shook his head, his wrinkled face was huddled, and he stared at Zhao Xuanqi with cloudy eyes and asked, "Aiqing, you tell me, can I trust you?" ”

Zhao Xuanqi was silent and replied, "Yes." ”

Emperor Jingming breathed a sigh of relief, and then he lay back on the Taishi chair with relief, and kept coughing: "I'm old, I can't do anything, and my sons can't do it, and I still have to rely on you for the dead and wounded." ”

"If I had been thirty years earlier, I could have talked with you at night, conspired with great things, tried my best to expel the thieves of the world, gave deterrence to the kings of the world, and coerced the sea, but unfortunately I am old, dying and decaying, it really can't work, the destiny of heaven is unfair!"

"Zhao Aiqing, everything can only depend on you, I give you the right, I hope you can do the next recruitment, re-establish the forbidden army, if you have the ability, recover the mountains and rivers, and kill the rebellious ministers and thieves."

"If you don't have the ability, if you don't have the opportunity, then protect an area near Chang'an City, give the people stability, let the people live a stable life, keep the ancestral foundation of the Northern Wei Kingdom, and educate my unscrupulous descendants to love the country and the people, and I will die without regrets."

Zhao Xuanqi was surprised: "Let me recruit troops?" Reorganize the Forbidden Army? ”

You must know that there are 200,000 forbidden troops in the capital, and they were sent out to quell the chaos before, but they have already disappeared.

Now the matter of reorganizing the forbidden army is handed over to Zhao Xuanqi, on behalf of Zhao Xuanqi, if Zhao Xuanqi can, if he has the ability, he can recruit 200,000 troops to use it, which is reasonable and legal!

Zhao Xuanqi will be the commander of these 200,000 troops, the supreme commander, who legally owns 200,000 troops.

This kind of right is only available to the emperor, since ancient times, the forbidden army has been returned to the emperor, but I didn't expect Emperor Jingming to trust himself so much!

Of course, there are not so many people in the Chang'an City area now, and the loss of young and strong is serious, not to mention 200,000, even if it is 100,000 people, it can't be pulled out, but there is still no problem in pulling out tens of thousands of horses.

Anyway, with this name, it is reasonable to do a lot of things in the future, plus the previous Imperial Forest Army, the Purple Cloud Army, Zhao Xuanqi will have a high military power.

Zhao Xuanqi wanted to refuse, but Emperor Jingming didn't give him a chance to refuse, and kept pulling Zhao Xuanqi to say that the family was long and the family was short, and he kept coughing halfway.

Everything made Zhao Xuanqi feel a little uneasy, reminiscent of Emperor Jingming's previous words, what does it mean that everything depends on me, you can recover the mountains and rivers, if you can't, protect the foundation of Chang'an City, and educate your children and grandchildren, how can you look like you want to take care of the future?

He fell into a long silence.

I don't know why, my eyes suddenly turned red.

Outside the house, the cold wind is blowing, the autumn leaves are falling, and the dark night is coming, and the scene of winter is coming.

The stove in the room was warm and brightly lit, and the warm fire light shone on the two monarchs and ministers, and their backs were reflected on the wall, swaying with the orange firelight.

(End of chapter)