Behind her, in the middle of the palace, left and right. The everlasting lamp that never goes out day and night is an endless stream of incense dedicated by the pious descendants of the Li family to their ancestors. The left and right halls are accompanied by many princes and generals of the Holy Dynasty, epitaphs or the pen of historians, all of whom have made outstanding achievements and are worthy of such supreme glory.

Such a solemn and precious place, such as General Pei Gu, is not qualified to sit down.

However, he himself either never thought about or cared about such afterlife.

This Li family temple, which always has a deep door closed and exudes the noble and rotten smell of old age, should not be the destination he wants.

Dead on the battlefield, the horse leather shroud is the most magnificent epitaph written for a god of war.

However, the curtain call of the god of war turned out to be the death of a knife from behind.

She withdrew her gaze, leaned her head against the door, and closed her eyes for a moment, and an urge to leave suddenly welled up in her heart.

This place, she didn't want to stay longer for a moment.

She opened her eyes and was about to get up, pausing slightly.

Far away, at the end of the past Dan Majesty Road, another seat stopped, and the shadows of several palace people were hidden in a dark shadow outside the gate.

In front of her, under His Majesty Dan, the old palace supervisor supported the emperor and sent him here. Then, the emperor stretched out his hand, put it on the head of the white jade railing of the Dan Majesty Steps, followed the stone steps, touched it himself, and walked towards her.

She held on to the temple gate and slowly stood up.

The emperor himself climbed the lowest section of the steps, and the head of the balustrade stretched down to the ground, and there was a gap in the middle, and his hands were empty enough, and the person lost his direction at once. The big withered hand continued to grope around the neighborhood, but in vain.

After a few attempts, he stopped and stood still. The rickety figure slowly showed a little frustration and helplessness.

Su Yu walked down the steps and walked in front of him.

"Ayer." She whispered, "Why are you here?" ”

When the Emperor heard her voice, his face was slightly delighted, and he stretched out his hand to her, and the moment he touched her drooping sleeve, as if he felt something, the hand paused in the air, and slowly retracted it.

"Aya heard that you woke up and came here......," the emperor muttered, his tone as if flattering.

"I'm fine, and I don't care about the injury."

Su Yu replied calmly, stretched out his hand, and held the emperor's arm.

"Let's go, I'll send Aya back."

The Emperor did not immediately take a step. He lowered his face slightly, as if staring at the hand that Su Yu was holding him.

"Sister-in-law, you know everything, don't you?" Finally, he slowly lifted his face.

"You already know that Aya is a complete bad person. Aren't you disappointed in Ayer? ”

Su Yu looked at the emperor in front of him.

I don't see the terrifying appearance when he lifted his sword to kill people anymore. His face was hidden in the embers of the everlasting lamp that came out of the hall behind her, and in the dim and dim light, this old face was now full of helpless frustration and panic.

She took a deep breath.

"Aya, you are really cold, beyond all my previous expectations, and even, when I think of it, I feel a kind of heart-pounding." She answered softly.

The Emperor's face twitched slightly.

"What happened back then, you may really be incomprehensible. I can probably guess why after so many years, Aye, you have not corrected the name of General Pei and given them the honor they deserve. I can't say you're wrong, because I'm not in your place, and I'm not in a position to be free to criticize an emperor before him and what he thinks about after his death. What scares me is your coldness, Aya. You are obviously guilty of the deceased, but you make the most of their value, and even continue to hurt the living people related to the deceased. ”

"From the day Aya became your emperor, you will no longer be the Aya I was when I was a child."

"Aya did this, all for the sake of ......"

In the midst of his daughter's merciless accusations, the emperor wanted to defend himself, opened his mouth, stopped again, and closed his lips again.

"I know, Aye, you want to say that everything you do is to maintain the imperial court, as well as the foundation of the holy pilgrimage after you go, right? It's like what you did to A-Niang. ”

"Sister-in-law, you're leaving Aya, aren't you?"

Finally, the emperor asked, his expression covered with a faint layer of despair.

Su Yu stared at him and shook his head slowly.

"No, I'm not leaving, I'm not going to leave you." She answered.

"Aye, you make my teeth cold, but I can't really hate you. I sympathize, I sympathize with the Aya I used to be, and I still have the Aya of the king. ”

She stretched her eyes and looked at the shadow of the temple that towered in the night.

"After he ascended to the throne, the rest of his life and his soul were trapped in this place, like the officials of the Manchu Dynasty, kneeling down to that position, thinking and thinking, for that position. Loyal ministers, soldiers, and beloved women can all retreat aside, their hearts as hard as iron, and their swords and spears cannot be broken—"

She turned to the Emperor and, once more, her fingers spread, slowly grasped his arm.

"Aya, A-Niang reminded me from time to time in my dreams and told me not to return. It's really not a place I want to stay, but I'm not going to leave Ayah. As it was before, and it will be in the future, I will be the eyes of Aya and accompany Aya until the day when Aya does not need me. ”

"Who called me your daughter Aye?"

Her voice fell.

"Sister-in-law."

After a while, the emperor finally reacted, called her in a trembling voice, stretched out his arms, and hugged his daughter tightly into his arms.

Su Yu gently snuggled his face into the emperor's arms, closed his eyes for a moment, and said, "I'll send Aya back." ”

"Okay."

The emperor had never been so obedient as at this moment, and even obediently leaned on his daughter's side, letting her lead him, slowly, out of this temple.

Half a month later, in the same place, in fact, the princess of the regent was already a saint who was physically incapacitated, leading the kings and a group of important officials of the court who were qualified to be included in the ranks, to come here and hold the ancestor worship ceremony that had been postponed to this day due to an accident.

After the end, a major event was announced on the spot: the imperial court appointed Song Guogong, Xue Mian, the governor of Liangzhou, as the general manager of the march of the Jiannan Road to Pingchao, and the envoys of Lizhou and Langzhou Jiedu as deputy governors, and coordinated the dispatch of troops, with a total of 200,000 troops, to conquer Yuwen Shouren, the envoy of the former southwest county Wang Jiannan Jiedu. The day of departure was set for three days later, December 20.

The cause of this incident is that a few days ago, a news was sent to Chang'an through a fast horse, Yuwen Shouren sent a message, denouncing the many crimes of the current emperor, announcing that the original orthodox Jingsheng prince's bloodline is not endless, and the emperor's grandson Li Yan has been favored by heaven and has been found, so he embraced him as the emperor in the local area, set the new year name as a copy, and called on all parties in the world to respond, jointly send troops to Chang'an, clean up the source with the original, and support the holy temple.

This sudden rebellion shook Chang'an in an instant. The people immediately thought of the chaos that occurred in the last years of Jingsheng, one is not good, I am afraid that all parts of the country will follow suit, the chaos is not only in the southwest, people are panicked for a while, and no one is paying attention to the streets and alleys inside and outside the walls.

In the court, this matter suddenly covered up the suspicion of the horse that had attracted the most attention and spread the most inconclusive before. The ministers were indignant and went to the table one after another, scolding the rebellious ministers and thieves. It's just that the news came too suddenly, Yuwen Shouren changed from an old minister of the two dynasties to a rebel overnight, and many courtiers were caught off guard, and the saint dragon was restless, and the princess was a woman, and she was just a temporary assistant to the government-

Everyone thought that it might take some time for the imperial court to respond effectively.

Even if the employment can be quickly determined, the conscription of troops and the dispatch of grain and grass are not simple things to take for granted. In the face of a rebel army of this size, the imperial court did not have a few months of preparation, and it was afraid that it would be impossible to organize a full-scale formal counterattack.

No one expected that the imperial court would send troops so quickly and forcefully, and it was obviously prepared. How could the 200,000 troops, which were twice as many as the rebels, be dispatched in just three days.

This is not only a powerful head-on response to the rebels' momentum, but also a deterrent to the rest of the local community who may also take advantage of the opportunity to speculate.

When the news spread, not only the courtiers were excited, but the people of Chang'an City were even more happy, running to tell each other, and waiting for the grand moment of dispatching troops.

Another dark night fell, in an anonymous dungeon in the palace, in the silence of midnight, King Ning came to the cell where Pei Xiaoyuan was being held.

A bucket room, a lamp like a bean. In a corner where the dim light could not be illuminated, a figure lay with his back to the prison door. The back looked like a toppled mountain, sinking and unmoving.

King Ning stopped outside the prison gate, remembering that the guard had just said that in the first few days when the horse came, not a drop of water had entered, and he had not slept all night. Later, he gradually improved, but he still ate very little, day and night, either meditated in the corner, or closed his eyes and fell asleep, hardly speaking, almost terrifyingly quiet.

The prison door opened, and the iron lock made an unusually alarming sound because of the silence of the night. The back in the room moved, and then the man slowly got up and sat cross-legged.

Pei Xiaoyuan's original official robe and boots had long been removed, and he was wearing a prison robe, with messy black hair and deeply sunken eyes.

In just over half a month, he looked much haggard, but his posture and demeanor were still as dignified as he was used to, and he did not become depressed at all because he was imprisoned in prison clothes.

He looked at King Ning and smiled and nodded.

King Ning looked around the prison.

It should be Zhao Zhongfang's secret order, this should be the cleanest cell in this prison, but even so, it is still narrow and simple, there is only a seat under him, a thin jacket, and I remembered that the prison guard told me that the thick mattress and the stove and the horse were not accepted on the grounds of wearing the crime, and I couldn't help but sigh secretly: "What? These days, you have suffered. ”

Pei Xiaoyuan smiled and said, "It's already good here, I'm fine." ”

Or because he had not spoken for many days, he suddenly spoke, and his voice was harsh and hoarse.

King Ning sighed secretly again. Because he came with something, he didn't say anything more, and sat on a pestle sent in by the guard.

"Erlang-kun, what are your plans for the future?" He asked directly.

"What I think, I have already informed Your Majesty that day." After a pause, Pei Xiaoyuan responded.

King Ning nodded slightly, "You are here these days, and you shouldn't know about the big things that have happened outside." ”

King Ning told Yuwen Shouren about Li Yan as emperor and Jiannan Dao having become a traitor.

"Fortunately, the imperial court has taken precautions, and tomorrow will be the day to send troops. Not only that, but you should also know that the princess detained Yu Wenzhi in advance. originally hoped that his father could put his son first and rein in the precipice, but he insisted on going his own way and cut off the incense of father and son, but it was Yu Wenzhi's own uncle, Li Dalu, the general of Xuanwei and the governor of Yizhou, who never gave up his nephew after fleeing before. The princess had reached an agreement with him and let Yu Wenzhi go as promised. ”

Pei Xiaoyuan listened silently.

"Now the southwest looks rebellious on the surface, but in fact it is expected, and the so-called 100,000 male soldiers, full of battles, should only be 50,000 or 60,000, including miscellaneous soldiers. The imperial court actually sent 100,000 troops, known as 20, and this response should be able to deter the rest of the uncles. As long as the fighting is undefeated, the crisis should not spread. What really worries His Majesty and the princess is the situation in the northwest. ”

King Ning looked at the figure sitting on the ground opposite.

"He Du has a cousin, named He Lituo, who had failed to usurp power and was in exile, and this incident happened at the time of the big salute, you should still have an impression. Li Yan was really cunning, and he also made friends privately with Na He Lituo, and designed to send someone to pretend to be an envoy of the Holy Dynasty to meet Hedu. Because of the past tokens of the imperial court, He did not distinguish between the true and the false, thinking that it was really a saint's messenger, and treated him with courtesy, defenseless, ambushed, and almost died. finally escaped, and now he is leading his henchmen to Chang'an for help. Na He Lituo set himself up as king, and he should have promised Li Yan to send troops at the right time to help him seize the throne. ”

King Ning frowned.

"Not only that, but on the side of the North Court, Ashina has also established himself as a khan, and is fighting with the rest of the chiefs, winning one victory after another. Once he succeeds and integrates the North Court, he will inevitably go south to commit crimes. When the time comes, Xifan will really be attacked on both sides. The key precautionary point of the imperial court is actually in the northwest. Now Linghu Gong is mobilizing people and horses to be ready to deal with it at any time, but if a war breaks out, he is afraid that he will be left and right, and it will not be easy to deal with it. ”

He paused, and got up from his sitting.

"Pei Xiaoyuan took the order."

"The sage decreed that Pei Xiao Yuan should be guilty of meritorious service, and he would be named General Zhongwu, and immediately go to Ganliang to assist the general manager of the marching army, Ling Hu Gong, to be sure to repel the enemy chieftain, calm the chaos and Jingbian, and keep the enemy out of the country."

Pei Xiaoyuan slowly knelt on the ground.

After King Ning finished speaking, he hurriedly went up and lifted him up from the ground.

"The news of the situation on both sides of the northwest is still suppressed for the time being, and has not been spread, so as not to cause uncertainty, and then affect the war in the southwest. Therefore, you can only be wronged by this trip to the north, I am afraid that you will not be able to hold a conquest ceremony like tomorrow, so you have to go quietly. However, you can choose from the various guard brigades in Beijing and go north with you. ”

"I'm fine. That's exactly what I want. ”

King Ning nodded: "Okay, okay, let's go out with me, prepare early, and then set off to perform my duties." ”

After King Ning finished speaking, he hurried to leave, but he didn't hear the movement behind him, stopped and turned his head, and saw that he was still standing in place, his eyes were difficult, so he asked what was the matter.

"How's the princess?" Finally, Pei Xiaoyuan asked in a low voice.

That night, in order to protect him, she was accidentally injured by the emperor and passed out in his arms. Looking at her pale face in spontaneous consciousness stained with blood on her shoulders, for a moment, he was so frightened that his heart and lungs were like a wrench, and this feeling of horror even completely overshadowed the wounds of his □□own body. However, before he could fully recover from his senses, she was taken away by her father. No one raised his sword to cut him anymore, and the emperor, who was so angry that he wanted to cut him in half a moment ago, only guarded his daughter and did not leave an inch, leaving him alone, watching the people in the palace rushing back and forth in front of him, and he was completely turned away.

She was near, but he couldn't get any closer.

This unprecedented, completely pushed out of the world where she was, a door away, but a sense of despair at the end of the world, was deeply imprinted in his heart for the first time in his life.

He should never be erased.

King Ning said with a smile: "The princess's shoulder injury is fine, and the horse can rest assured." ”

His gaze quickly swept over Pei Xiaoyuan's injured hand and paused.