Changle Floating Life

In February of the 16th year of Taiping, the snow in Ganjing had not yet melted, and the whole city was still immersed in the festive atmosphere of the New Year.A drop of water turns into ice, and people still "meet each other without making a move" when they meet.

Duan Wang Pei Zhaoye was ordered to enter the palace after lunch.Walking outside the Yanbo Hall where the emperor lived, he saw two men in purple clothes and gold and jade coming side by side.One is the crown prince Donggong Pei Jianye, and the other is the third prince Pei Shouye.Pei Zhaoye stepped forward to meet the prince and greeted King Ning.The prince asked with a smile, "It's such a cold day, what's the important thing for the second brother to enter the palace?"

Pei Zhaoye also smiled and said, "I don't know what's going on with the imperial father's summons."

The crown prince and King Ning didn't dare to delay his business, so they greeted him a few words and walked away.Both of these two are the princes born in the middle palace, and they both look like white-faced scholars and gentle gentlemen.Pei Zhaoye, on the other hand, has a tough face and a heroic spirit, a bit like a gold and iron horse.The empress had three sons in total, from the crown prince to the third and fourth children, there was only a difference of one or two years in age, which showed the strength of the holy family.Only the second prince, Pei Zhaoye, intervened among their brothers, which seemed a bit dazzling.

The two went straight to the small pavilion in the East Palace.The prince waved his hand to stop the servant girl from serving tea, but the entourage automatically avoided, and the two of them did not sit down, they leaned against the jade railing and talked in a low voice. "Brother, you don't know what the outsiders are saying: Fallen down to the princess of Zhenguo, and eat up Duanwang's mansion." King Ning whispered softly.

The prince burst out laughing: "This rhymes." He shook his head again and said: "The case of Princess Zhenguo's mansion has not yet been settled, and it is too early to tell. At this time, the upper intention is unclear, and the lower intention is unclear. Don't make unreasonable comments, it's good to meddle." It's not smart to beat a dog in the water with a stick.He has been the prince for 16 years, and he has worked hard to pretend to be a filial son and grandson. He has always been cautious and low-key, and he is unwilling to make a statement on this matter.

King Ning didn't take it seriously, with a silly smile on his face: "He didn't do this job very well. The old one died, the young one ran away, he got burned, and he was bitten when he hit the tiger. I don't know how many old people in the Princess Party hate him. Tooth itching."

The prince finally couldn't help but snorted and said: "My maidservant is like Mrs., I can't learn like that."

King Ning rolled his eyes and knew that the prince scolded the old and the young together, so he couldn't help asking curiously: "Second brother's biological mother, I heard that she is a famous beauty in the feudal domain, is it true? Is she more beautiful than the queen mother? "

The crown prince glared, "You should just slap your mouth! What are you doing to compare your mother to that bitch?" King Ning also felt that this question was inappropriate, so he stuck out his tongue again and again.The crown prince's eyebrows jumped, and he suddenly remembered something: "Before he left, he borrowed a thousand black armored soldiers from his father, have you returned the soldier amulet?" King Ning was also taken aback, and said: "I don't know, I'll ask when I go back. "

As soon as the two became suspicious, they chattered endlessly.The palace eunuchs stood far away, not daring to move away, for fear that they had something to tell them, and they dared not approach them, for fear of hearing the whole story.King Ning didn't leave the East Palace until it was time to light the lamps. Before he left, he suddenly asked, "Eldest brother lives in the palace, do you know how your father is doing recently?"

The emperor asked Duan Wang to enter the palace just because of the Heijia Army.Pei Zhaoye handed over the military talisman, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his whole body, and he felt a lot easier in an instant.

Taiping Emperor Pei Zhan was forty-five years old this year, and he hated the complicated and simple by nature. It was not until he was 30 years old that he stood out from the royal family and ascended the throne.Some of the courtiers said that he was invincible because he did not fight, while others felt that his position was not right and his conscience was biased.Fortunately, starting from the Taizong Dynasty, the court had a good operating mechanism. The Son of Heaven was just a symbol, and everything was just a matter of hand.After Pei Zhan took the throne, he also carried forward the purpose of "Jun Yi Chen Lai" to the extreme.In recent years, some people have combined the reign title of "Taiping" with Zhongzong's title of "Shaokang", and recorded it as "the prosperous age of Kangping".

Prosperity is built on a dangerous balance.People in later generations still don't understand why, in the last years of Taiping, the emperor decisively sealed up the Zhen Guo Princess Mansion on trumped-up charges, causing a great uproar in the ruling and opposition parties.

Pei Zhan had protruding cheekbones and two deep nasolabial folds at the corners of his mouth, with a slightly mean look. He first asked, "Have you visited your mother?" Pei Zhaoye answered yes.Empress Qi has been seriously ill for the past two years, and Pei Zhan did not let the princes who had already been crowned become vassals because he wanted to keep them in Beijing to comfort the long-sick empress.

At this time, Pei Zhan swept the memorial more than a foot high on the imperial table to the ground with a wave of his hand.The sound of the document crashing to the ground startled Pei Zhaoye when he looked up, and saw his father's eyes that were so deep that he could not see the bottom. "See for yourself."

His previous sentence was still flat, but the latter sentence was filled with anger, and his face suddenly became unkind.Pei Zhaoye seldom watched him say three sentences without changing his face since he was a child.This moody problem has also been brought to the extreme after he ascended the throne.

He hurried forward on his knees, picked up a few notebooks and flipped through them, over and over again the same tone: King Duan and Dali Temple created an unjust case, killed the royal family, swept up the officialdom in the southeast, and put everyone in the court and the public at risk.Pei Zhaoye suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and kowtowed to plead guilty.

The emperor sighed, and said: "The world has been corrupted for a long time. Do you think that once Pei Yongzhen dies and the trees fall and the monkeys scatter, these people will know what to say? The case will be sent back to Dali Temple for retrial. Do you remember?" Focus, the way to use soldiers is the most important thing to be self-reliant, not to ask for help, and the way to control the general, the most important thing is to be sincere, not to be expensive."

The emperor was dissatisfied, King Duan was terrified, his hairs stood on end, he quickly received an order to thank him, and left Yanbo Hall.There was an old eunuch standing outside the hall. Pei Zhaoye passed by to say hello to him and asked, "Gao Gonggong, it's been very cold this year. Is the father's dragon body still healthy?"

Eunuch Gao's long white eyebrows drooped down, a bit fairy-like, and he said with a smile: "Don't worry, Prince Duan, everything is fine in the palace."The emperor looked up at the hesitant expression on his face, waved his hand and said, "You are so careless. The middle talent is all about hard work, and those who can restrain themselves will be able to defeat the enemy. When I was his age, I could not Not as stupid as him. There is no natural emperor in this world. If you don't get involved in these dirty things, how can you sit in this position." He sighed again: "None of these children can make me feel at ease, and neither is the prince. , so does the third child."

Eunuch Gao switched Fuchen from his left hand to his right, pretending he didn't hear it.

As soon as Pei Zhaoye left the palace, he came to Dali Temple.When the eunuch saw him, he hurriedly stood up to greet him, and when he heard that Zuo Fengmian was in trial, he ordered someone to lead the way.

The case against Princess Zhenguo's mansion is complicated and complicated, and the physical evidence is only twelve yellow books.Ning Caishen's house was on fire, and all the documents were burned, and there was nothing to support, so the yellow book became an isolated evidence.In terms of witness testimony, Li Zhiwei, Yuan Huaike and others shouted their injustice as soon as they arrived in Ganjing, saying that they were framed by people.The magistrate's office and the governor's office did not find any important evidence.Coupled with the tragic deaths of Pei Yongzhen and Yuan Shangqiu, the government and the public were uproarious, and impeachment memorials from Yushitai flew like snowflakes, and the emperor stayed in the middle.Dali Temple has been investigated from last year to this year. If there is no evidence in the investigation, where will the emperor's old face be put?So after the new year, Pei Zhan probably saw that there was no progress, so he lost his temper and called Duan Wang to show his face.Now that the situation is grim, with the respect of a prince, he must personally go to prison and come to inquire about the case.

Zuo Fengmian is interrogating Li Zhiwei.Without being disturbed, he entered Yuan Huaike's cell at the other end of the corridor.I saw a few straws on the ground, a wooden bed, and no bedding.Yuan Huaike sat on the straw on the ground with his back against the leg of the bed, his head in rough clothes and his hands and feet in shackles.

Pei Zhaoye asked someone to move a grand master's chair, put it in the middle of the cell, and waved the jailer away.After he sat down, he sighed heavily, and said: "Master Yuan, you were born in Zhaoren years, joined the army in Shaokang years, and served under the garrison command of Youzhou. When Rouran attacked, you fought bravely and were favored by the princess and consort. Since then, I have become the princess's personal bodyguard. Isn't it?"

Yuan Huaike completely ignored the movements in the prison, and didn't even change his posture.

With a shake of Pei Zhaoye's shoulders, he brushed away a piece of dust that fell from the beams, and said in a low voice, "Master Yuan, Zhaoye was born on the border of Yunzhou, but he has never been involved in a war. The farthest place he has been to is Yunzhou City." The countryside ten miles away. When I was a child, my father often said to our brothers that traveling thousands of miles without an inch of soldiers is the credit of Taizong and Princess Zhenguo. I envy you, Master Yuan, for being able to accompany the princess, cross the battlefield, and kill Northern prisoner. Zhaoye's young man learned martial arts, and he has always felt that the country is peaceful and there is no chance to serve the court."

Yuan Huaike lowered his head and lowered his eyes, letting him talk to himself.

"Zhaoye has regarded Princess Zhenguo as a god since he was a child, and everyone in the court knows that the emperor's aunt is a human being. If you say a few presumptuous words, even in the few years when your father first came to the throne, he often said in front of his clan elders: Regardless of size, sit as the son of heaven, the so-called parents who give birth to me, and the princess who honors me. Can you tell me where the imperial aunt offended the emperor?"

I don't know if I was moved by hearing his many heartfelt words, or was shocked by his disobedience, Yuan Huaike's throat gurgled with phlegm.He cleared his throat for a long time before looking up at Pei Zhaoye. There was too much pity in the old and cloudy eyes, which made the young King Duan feel ashamed: "Your Highness is really ignorant and fearless. He dared to go to Jiangnan without knowing anything. However, some You wouldn’t understand it if you weren’t in that seat. Princess Zhenguo, after all, her surname is Pei.”

Hearing what he said proudly, Pei Zhaoye thought in his heart that it was probably related to the high position.I'm just curious, back then, the princess was the one who supported the father and the emperor, and he ruled. After 20 years, the situation was settled, and even if she regretted it, where would she go to find someone to replace her.Turning hands is cloud and hand is rain, how can the princes of the Manchu Dynasty agree?

Yuan Huaike would not easily answer these questions in his mind.Then he said in a low voice: "The house is leaking, but knowing it is the bottom. Master Yuan, you are the confidant of the princess. I hope you can give me some advice, so that this case can be settled quickly and successfully, and no innocent people will be involved. Gradually green," he paused, and said: "The Marquis of An Ning doesn't have to run around anymore. I will go to plead with the emperor, and I must keep the blood of the princess mansion. At worst, the prince will not do it, and I will take him back to Yun That's the state."

When he talked about the emotional part, he couldn't help but hoarse and his throat was choked, and the corners of his eyes were moist.Yuan Huaike looked up at him, and suddenly grinned and said, "Are you begging me?" Pei Zhaoye was taken aback, then nodded in affirmation, "I beg you." , even though he knew that he was pretending to be false, but he couldn't hide the deep hatred in his heart, saying: "I am a good son, I asked Zuo Fengmian to kill him, if you do the same to Zuo Fengmian, I will tell you everything. "

Pei Zhaoye's face turned pale, and he immediately said: "No! If Zuo Shaoqing makes a mistake in judging the case and bends the law for personal gain, he will be governed by the laws of his own country. If Mr. Yuan is really wronged, and you tell the truth, His Majesty will also return his innocence." Yuan Huai Ke suppressed his smile and said, "His Royal Highness, are you making fun of this old man?"My son I know.A well-dressed gentry, with high moral character, doesn't care much about studying.Although Shang Qiu is ignorant, he has never done evil. On the contrary, he is still a child who is very loyal and knows right from wrong. "

There was a licking feeling on his face, and Pei Zhaoye couldn't bear to refute him.But also because of this, he was even more resentful in his heart, and said solemnly: "Your Excellency loves your parents and children, and you should also accumulate good fortune for Mr. Yuan. Your Excellency is the general manager of the water transportation, and the grain is related to the wealth and lives of millions of Li people. Your Excellency But it is used for profit. The government has a bit of Zhu, and the people have a bit of blood. The government fights for power and profit, the officials collect too much, the authority is exercised alone, the discipline is chaotic, and the boat is too leaky. Not to mention the kindness of the king, the shame and the undeserved, etc. If Master Yuan is a hundred years later, how can he have the face to meet Princess Zhen Guo?"

Yuan Huaike suddenly sneered twice and said, "If you want to commit a crime, there is nothing to worry about. An official is not greedy for ink, so why should he be an official? Is it really because of idleness? I am definitely not a weak king today. , the sect is getting deeper and there are many factions, and if the old faction is removed with the act of establishing prestige and the new one is established, everyone in the old faction will be in danger and the connection will be strengthened. I am afraid that neither your majesty nor Prince Duan thought of this. His highness has a clear mind, so he let the Dali Temple Condemning me is what I did to say these hypocritical words. Is it possible that I am really like those foolish people who believe in Avici Hell and retribution in the afterlife?" After he finished speaking, he looked up at the sky and sat silently. .

Pei Zhaoye tried his best to talk badly about Chen Yili, but the other party was reticent and kept silent.He predicted that this person would not respond with the truth, and he was also powerless.At this time, slight and familiar footsteps sounded outside, and he knew that Zuo Fengmian's interrogation was over, so he got up from the chair, raised his robe and walked out of the cell.The two looked at each other silently, and left the Dali Temple one after the other.

Duan Wang's sedan chair was parked outside the door, Pei Zhaoye lifted the curtain and signaled Zuo Fengmian to get on the sedan chair as well.The two were riding in the same sedan chair, Zuo Fengmian looked at him who was so close, his eyes were red for some reason.

Pei Zhaoye thought that he was exhausted from trial all night, so he patted the top of his head sympathetically.Zuo Fengmian grabbed his hand, pressed it against his cheek and rubbed it, tears flowed down Duan Wang's hand unconsciously.He heard all the last words of Pei Zhaoye and Yuan Huaike. At this time, his heart was surging and he couldn't restrain himself. He made up his mind that he would be willing to die for King Duan.

If Pei Zhaoye didn't notice, he was thinking about other things.When he was about to arrive at the Zuo Mansion, he suddenly said: "Feng Mian, today I entered the palace to meet the Emperor Father, and the Emperor Father said that Dali Temple will re-examine the case of the Princess Mansion and the Ning family. If you don't bother the two masters, you should go to the south of the Yangtze River again." Right. Jiang Xilie must find it. I think there is always something that we have overlooked." He thought that Gu Tingrang would also lose sight of anyone once he returned to Ganjing, and he felt a headache.However, he is the emperor's private person, so he dare not put him in jail with great fanfare.

"Okay" Zuo Fengmian wiped his tears with his sleeve, and agreed without hesitation.He got off the Duanwang sedan chair and stood at the door of his house for a long time, seeing the big green woolen sedan chair disappear into the cold wind at the end of the long street, he was still reluctant to go in.

A few more days later, Zuo Fengmian explained clearly about the Dali Temple and was about to leave Beijing.Pei Zhaoye personally sent him to the long pavilion outside Ganjing City, folded willows and sent him to each other. He urged him earnestly: "Everything in the world should be done with the heart of the world. It is not appropriate to use selfish wisdom and small wisdom to make others think you are narrow-minded. Change, you need to remember these four words when you go here, you have to forgive others and forgive others. If you find a trace, tell someone to report it to me quickly. gone."

Zuo Fengmian looked at him reluctantly, then nodded to a big monk in yellow shirt beside him and said: "Returning Master, when Zuo is away, I hope Master will remind His Highness more, so as to eliminate the karma in his heart."

The yellow-shirted monk's face and facial features were very honest, he clasped his hands together, and said: "The poor monk will definitely chant scriptures every day and pray for the two Tanyues."

Pei Zhaoye waited for Zuo Fengmian to disappear before walking back with the great monk.Passing by the Ganjing city gate, the two went up to the Buddha jumping building near the south gate together, and ordered a large table of vegetarian food.It turned out that this person was an eminent monk from the Daxiangguo Temple in the capital, and he had known Pei Zhaoye for more than ten years. In the past, the family sacrifices to his biological mother were all arranged by this person.There was still a month to go before Qingming, Pei Zhaoye asked him to come, one was to get rid of the hostility for Zuo Fengmian's trip, and the other was to discuss the matter of offering sacrifices.

Pei Zhaoye talked to him without saying a word, his eyes fell on the long street outside the window.Suddenly he frowned, his expression tensed, as if he saw something extraordinary.The returning monk followed his gaze, and saw an ox cart pulling wood firewood coming at the gate of the city, driven by an old man and a young man.The old man was smoking a dry pipe, his face was wrinkled.Although the young ones are also clothed with straw sandals, they are long and thin, and they have a graceful posture of raising their whips.When the ox cart reached the four-fork intersection before the Buddha jumped from the building, the young man returned the whip to the old man, said a few words, jumped out of the ox cart and walked in the opposite direction to the front of the cart.

Pei Zhaoye's face was flushed, and his breathing suddenly became disordered.The returned monk chanted "Amitabha", and he came back to his senses. There was a trace of frenzy in his eyes, and he asked in a trembling voice, "Master, I have something to ask."

The returning monk pursed his lips and smiled, and said: "After a hundred years of cultivation, we can cross the same boat. Passing by is also a fate in a previous life."

Pei Zhaoye stood up abruptly and poured down the wine glass in front of him. The fragrance of a glass of fine pear blossom liquor made the cold air sweet and greasy: "Master, Rong Zhaoye will take his leave first."

The author has something to say: This chapter is a little short, but we will meet soon~~~

The next chapter: Linglong Dice