Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 488 What people want

Liu Gui instinctively felt that something was wrong, but Xi Yi, the highest-ranking official left in Luoyang, spoke up and set the tone, so he swallowed his objection.

Anyway, the highest person in charge in Luoyang now is Xi Yi, so he just needs to follow Xi Yi and there is no need to confront the emperor at this time.

Simply put, including Liu Gui, all the ministers who had contact with Yuan Ziyou would more or less feel a sense of guilt towards this puppet emperor, and Yuan Ziyou's attitude of respecting and humbly accepting others made them emotionally willing to give Yuan Ziyou some convenience.

People always sympathize with the weak, especially when Erzhu Rong was so powerful, everyone felt that Yuan Ziyou was the one being forced.

In comparison, the young emperor Yuan Xu, who was taken to Guanzhong by Su Ze, was much less capable than Yuan Ziyou.

Su Ze's supervision and control over Yuan Xu was not as strict as Erzhu Rong's, and he even allowed the little emperor to summon ministers.

Even after Yuan Xu entered Guanzhong, some scholars from the royalist faction asked to see the little emperor.

But soon, these ministers discovered in their contacts with Yuan Xu that the young emperor was very naive in politics. More importantly, he had no opinions of his own on anything he did, and often had one idea today and another idea tomorrow.

This is very scary.

Even the most staunch royalist would not dare to have contact with such a little emperor. If you swear to be a royalist today, and the little emperor becomes cowardly tomorrow and tells others that you want to be a royalist, wouldn't that lead to the confiscation of your property and the extermination of your clan?

Su Ze's behavior of allowing ministers to interact with the young emperor actually led to a consensus among people in Guanzhong - "the young emperor does not look like a monarch."

Su Ze's actions completely disappointed those forces in Guanzhong that were loyal to the Northern Wei. There was no hope in following such a little emperor, so they might as well serve Duke Su obediently.

Anyway, Su Ze didn’t usurp the throne!

If Su Ze can really rule the universe in the future, his merits will naturally be enough to replace Wei, and there will be no problem with the legal system.

Erzhu Rong's close supervision of Yuan Ziyou actually created a mysterious impression for the emperor. In addition, Yuan Ziyou was indeed very good at managing his personal image, and even Xi Yi had a good impression of him. This made Yuan Ziyou a banner against Erzhu Rong.

People are like this, the more they can't get something, the more they desire it.

The more Erzhu Rong prohibited the emperor from meeting with foreign officials, the more the foreign officials in Luoyang were eager to meet the emperor. They had already imagined Yuan Ziyou to be like Emperor Xuan of Han, and praised him as a wise and holy ruler who slept on firewood and tasted gall.

This is probably something Erzhu Rong did not expect.

Xi Yi said cautiously:
"However, since your majesty has left the palace to pray, General Tianzhu must be informed. I will report this to the general as soon as possible."

Yuan Ziyou showed a look of compassion and said:

"Buddha's birthday is just around the corner. If I were to report this to the general, I'd probably miss the date. I'm just burning incense at Yongning Temple, which is also considered worshipping Buddha on behalf of the Queen Mother. I don't need to bother the general with this little thing, right?"

Xi Yi did not continue to object, and Liu Gui did not object after thinking about it. After all, Yuan Ziyou's reasons were reasonable and he could not find any fault with them.

But on the day of Buddha's birthday, no one knew who leaked the news, but the news that the emperor had left the palace to worship Buddha spread throughout Luoyang.

Many officials and common people in Luoyang gathered outside the Yongning Temple, wanting to see the young emperor.

Liu Gui felt a headache. He originally wanted to cancel Yuan Ziyou's activities on the grounds of security, but Yuan Ziyou was very determined to go to Yongning Temple to worship Buddha, and Xi Yi had no objection. Liu Gui could only bite the bullet and personally put on armor and hold a sharp weapon to escort Yuan Ziyou out of the palace to worship Buddha.

Yuan Ziyou, wearing the emperor's crown and dark robes, personally boarded the carriage and set out from the palace.

When the people of Luoyang saw the young and heroic emperor, they cheered.

Some old officials in Luoyang, seeing Yuan Ziyou's heroic appearance, could not help but recall the time of Emperor Xiaowen. At that time, Luoyang was still the center of the world. Any Luoyang citizen would unconsciously straighten his chest when thinking of this.

But now, the people of Luoyang are being bullied by these barbarians from Bingzhou.

These old people couldn't help but burst into tears and knelt on the ground shouting "Long live the emperor".

At this time Liu Gui felt something was even more wrong. He felt that this trip out of the palace to pray for blessings was planned by Yuan Ziyu long ago.

Fortunately, Yongning Temple was originally a royal temple and was very close to the imperial palace. Otherwise, if Yuan Ziyou walked around Luoyang in this state, Liu Gui would probably go crazy.

After entering Yongning Temple, Yuan Ziyou did not do anything unusual, but just went to the Buddhist temple to pray.

Liu Gui had been worried and frightened all the way and was exhausted at this time. Fortunately, Xi Yi took over the job of protecting the emperor.

At this time, the emperor was up to something again. He wanted to go to the burned-down pagoda in Yongning Temple to pay tribute to the first tall pagoda in Luoyang City.

Liu Gui originally wanted to refuse, but Xi Yi agreed to this request. Liu Gui thought about it and did not continue to object.

This pagoda is the one that Su Ze was involved in during the Golden Lotus Incident in the early days of his time travel.

After the Yongning Temple Pagoda was burned down, they planned to rebuild it, but encountered the Yuan Yi coup and the complicated situation in Luoyang afterwards, so there was no chance to rebuild it.

Apart from the burned pagoda, there is the pagoda forest where the eminent monks of Yongning Temple are buried. There is nothing dangerous there. Anyway, it is Xi Yi's job to protect the emperor now.
After Xi Yi accompanied Yuan Ziyou into the pagoda in the back temple, Liu Gui started chatting about Buddhism with the monks in the front temple.

When Yuan Ziyou arrived at the back temple, Su Shun walked quickly to the edge of the ruins of the pagoda. He flexibly opened the secret passage under the pagoda, and several people walked out of the secret passage.

If Liu Gui were here, he would know that these were the ministers in the court of Luoyang. When they saw Yuan Ziyou, they immediately burst into tears and each of them knelt down and shouted "Long live Yuan Ziyou".

Yuan Ziyou also had tears in his eyes as he helped these ministers up one by one. These were all royalists that Xi Yi had helped contact.

In fact, we should also thank Erzhu Rong. It was Erzhu Rong who pushed these people to Yuan Ziyou's side.

However, Yuan Ziyou did not expect these old ministers to do anything specific. Although they supported the emperor psychologically, they might not have the courage to deal with Erzhu Rong. He just encouraged everyone to continue to be patient and let Su Shun send them out through the secret passage.

At this time, several strong warriors in black came out.

Xi Yi said to Yuan Ziyou:

"These are the musicians I have collected for Your Majesty."

The leader was Gao Aocao, who saluted respectfully to Yuan Ziyou, who immediately helped him up.

Feeling the muscles on Gao Aocao's arm, Yuan Ziyou couldn't help but say:
"What a strong man!"

Xi Yi has completely turned to Yuan Ziyou.

This was certainly due to Xi Yi's personal choice of interests, but it was also inseparable from Yuan Ziyou's personal charm.

It can only be said that the emperor established by Erzhu Rong was too "successful", so successful that any one chosen from the Northern Wei royal family would be more suitable to be a puppet than Yuan Ziyou.

Yuan Ziyou was only in his twenties, but he had experienced many coups d'état and showed a calmness and magnanimity far beyond his age.

He knew how to be patient and was willing to put in the effort to win over the people around him, so much so that every once in a while, Erzhu Rong had to replace the guards around Yuan Ziyou.

Coupled with the image that Yuan Ziyou had created over a long period of time, it was difficult for Xi Yi, who was already unhappy in the Erzhu Rong group, not to feel sympathy for him.

Through such interactions, Xi Yi also helped Yuan Ziyou do a lot of things.

Gradually, Xi Yi was caught in a dilemma.

It is actually not difficult to understand why Xi Yi chose Yuan Ziyou.

In Erzhu Rong's group, Xi Yi had been defined as a jailer, and Erzhu Rong's task for him was to guard Yuan Ziyou.

When attacking Hedong County this time, Xi Yi also volunteered to go to the battlefield, but was privately ridiculed by the "Erzhus" for not knowing how to fight and not knowing how to fight. Erzhu Rong also rejected his request and asked him to continue guarding the emperor in Luoyang.

Erzhu Rong may not have looked down on Xi Yi subjectively, but he did think that Xi Yi's greater use was as a jailer.

All this gave Xi Yi a deep sense of unease.

What if the things I helped Yuan Ziyou do were discovered?
Under the current situation, I am afraid that Erzhu Rong will not depose the emperor, and then I will be the one who is in trouble.

Just like those guards close to the emperor who were executed by Erzhu Rong.

Xi Yi made his own choice. He chose to completely surrender to Yuan Ziyou and help him gather his assassins.

In fact, Xi Yi was not unaware of the risks involved, but when he saw that Yuan Ziyou was so popular among the people in Luoyang, he decided to bet everything he had on it.

After shaving his beard, Gao Aocao pretended to be a musician. These people were actually warriors recruited by Xi Yi. They were basically Erzhu Rong's political opponents. Many of them, like Gao Aocao, even came from prominent families and were relatives of ministers killed by Erzhu Rong.

Then, Yuan Ziyou watched the warriors perform martial arts and was amazed at them all.

Xi Yi also said proudly:

"With these warriors here, there is no need to worry about not accomplishing our great cause!"

Yuan Ziyou also nodded.

Su Shun, who was standing by, didn't think so.

Erzhu Rong controlled a group that represented the interests of Bingzhou. Although Yuan Ziyou was good at coups and conspiracies, he never thought about whether the Bingzhou army would obey him once Erzhu Rong died?

When Dong Zhuo died, the Liang Province Legion did not obey Emperor Xian of Han.

All we can say is that Yuan Ziyou and Xi Yi were both obsessed with conspiracy, and thought that all problems could be solved as long as they solved one person.

However, they completely forgot that the prestige of the Northern Wei royal family had long been exhausted.

If the Northern Wei royal family still had prestige, how could there be rebellions all over the world, and how could there be the soil for Su Ze and Erzhu Rong to rise?
When Liu Gui at the door urged him, Xi Yi let Gao Aocao and the others go back into the tunnel. He said to Yuan Ziyou:
"I will train these musicians for Your Majesty, and have them come to the palace to 'play' for Your Majesty during festivals."

Yuan Ziyou nodded immediately, then came out of the back temple of Yongning Temple and returned to the palace.

(End of this chapter)