Chapter 295 Crying for mourning

In his later years, Emperor Jingning became increasingly suspicious and he was indecisive and often hesitant. In order to balance the court, he killed many things that he should not have killed and indulged in many things that he should not have indulged in.

The sage said that benevolence should be used to govern benevolence, but King Su always knew that his father's benevolence was fake. The old emperor had always used mercy to win people's hearts. In addition, his repeated remarks on the appointment of the crown prince also led to chaos in the administration of officials.

, Corruption is serious, and the country is now a gorgeous robe full of lice holes. From a distance, the palace is magnificent and the country is strong, but when you look closely, it is a mess. If it is not rectified, it is unknown whether the building will collapse.

The old emperor waved to Li Zhao, asked him to sit beside his bed, and said slowly: "Your father is an expert in military affairs and winning people's hearts, but he is very bold, but he is narrow-minded and not lenient enough."

The military is good, but the governance of the country is bad. You are better-tempered than your father. Stay by your father's side and encourage him more, lest you let him completely destroy our country, the Great Zhou Dynasty!"

These words really did not leave any face to Prince Su. Compared with the resentment towards Prince Su that the old emperor still had in his heart, everyone in the room had serious expressions on their faces, and Li Zhao even looked livid.

He didn't care about the last words of the emperor. He knelt down and kowtowed, crying: "The emperor's words are ridiculous! You... really misunderstood your father too much! Please feel free to hand over the heavy responsibility to your father."

!Father will never destroy the inheritance of our ancestors!"

The old emperor ignored him, looked at King Su and continued: "The Meng family is no longer allowed to hold any actual positions, otherwise, just wait, one day you will personally ransack your grandfather's family and exterminate them."

When Concubine Shu heard this, she was so angry that she wanted to strangle this bad old man to death!

You won't be able to see them until you die, right?

If Eunuch Wang hadn't come over in time to hold Concubine Shu, she would have had to rush up and scold the old man.

After that, the emperor said again: "You all leave, Lao San and Zhao'er stay."

After everyone exited as instructed, the emperor looked at King Su and suddenly said: "Ning family, how do you plan to deal with it?"

King Su chuckled: "Didn't you already move nearly half of the military households from the northeast to the Chahar area? You have taken care of everything for me, what else do I have to worry about?"

Seeing that his father still looked worried, King Su said: "My son will continue to expand westward and northward. When the guard posts are built in the Mongolian grasslands, the garrison in the northeast will have to be dispersed. We will not always let Ning

We have so many soldiers in our hands."

The old emperor sighed and said: "The treasury is empty, you must be careful and don't resort to violence!"

"Ha, I don't know who is going to war." King Su had reached the limit of his patience with his father's behavior of constantly criticizing him before he died.

Li Zhao quickly held down his father who was about to jump into a rage, clasped his fists and said to the old emperor: "Grandpa Emperor, when it comes to tax administration, we have no shortage of capable ministers in the Zhou Dynasty. Even if my father is not good at this, as long as we make good use of our capable ministers, the country will naturally be prosperous and strong.

, please rest assured, Grandpa Huang!"

The old emperor sighed again when he heard this.

There is no need to say who this capable minister is. No matter how angry he was about Song Jianming's betrayal, the old emperor had to admit that he was a truly capable minister.

So he said: "A capable minister is like water, which can carry a boat and capsize it. When dealing with such a minister, you... should do your own thing."

The emperor said no more.

King Su's face became even worse. He felt that his father was really old and confused. He was still thinking about how he could not live in peace. Before leaving, he first belittled him in front of all the ministers, and then sowed the father-son relationship between him and Azhao.

, and now he is trying to sow discord between him and Song Jianming.

He was so angry that he could hardly contain his anger, so he simply stood up and strode out.

Li Zhao sighed in his heart, feeling that everything about his father was good, but his temper was too explosive. When he was young, he was even demoted to Lingnan because of his temper. Now that he is middle-aged, he still always

Can't hold back my anger.

When the emperor saw that King Su had gone out, he felt a little proud. After the triumph, he felt endless emptiness and deep loss.

He began to close his eyes and meditate.

Li Zhao called Eunuch Yin in, and they both waited in front of the dragon bed.

During this period, Eunuch Yin rarely visited the old emperor, but from time to time his eyes fell on Li Zhao and observed him.

Li Zhao smiled and said, "If Eunuch Yin has anything to say, you might as well say it directly."

Yin Hongwen quickly knelt down, touched his head to the ground, and said: "Old slave...Old slave, I have nothing to ask for. Your Majesty has shown me the kindness of supporting me, and I will never forget it. I only hope that after Your Majesty goes down, I can

I will always accompany His Majesty underground, hoping that His Majesty will succeed."

Li Zhao frowned.

How to place such old ministers of the late emperor depends on the father's thoughts.

If it were not for the eldest uncle in Nanjing, the old eunuch named Yin might still be able to stay. But now that the situation has reached this point and the emperor is dying without giving any face to Prince Su, Eunuch Yin may not be able to stay.

In this way, Li Zhao helped Eunuch Yin and took the initiative to say: "If my father-in-law has such an idea, I think the emperor will be very pleased. As for Deng Cunjin and Wu Zhien, what can my father-in-law say?"

Those two people were Eunuch Yin's adopted sons and grandsons. Yin Hongwen hesitated for a moment and finally shook his head.

Li Zhao smiled and said: "Eunuch Yin's loyalty can be seen from the sun and the moon."

He said this, but he was disdainful in his heart, and he pretended to be so pathetic on his face. He looked at his nephew who was a wealthy businessman in Shanxi. They didn't know that when death was imminent, they only looked at the nephew outside the palace who had never paid him any filial piety.

, but ignored the two adopted sons and grandsons who were like dogs to him.

It's so cool.

Outside the window, the setting sun left its last rays, sinking below the horizon. Emperor Jingning, who had reigned for thirty-nine years, breathed his last breath in his sleep and passed away.

Dozens of imperial guards, dressed in white, rode out from the palace gate, shouting all the way: "Your Majesty has passed away! The whole country mourns! Your Majesty has passed away, and the whole country mourns!!"

They took the palace tokens with them and went to many temples and Taoist temples in Beijing to inform each temple and Taoist temple that His Majesty the Emperor had passed away. Each of them rang bells and 30,000 pestles.

For a time, bells were ringing all around the capital, and white lanterns and white sails were hung up in every household.

The whole city seemed to be covered with a layer of white gauze.

In the palace, the mourning hall has been well-arranged. The emperor's coffin is made of fine nanmu. The emperor is dressed in a luxurious brocade shroud and is wrapped in quilts from the Quanzhen and Sanqing sutras, which are made of agarwood.

After the inner coffin was fixed with rivets, it was waterproofed with paraffin wax before being placed in the nanmu outer coffin.

After being laid to rest in the imperial palace for 7,749 days, it will be transferred to the imperial mausoleum on the outskirts of Beijing, where it will remain for another three months before being buried.

But before placing the body in the coffin, King Su took out his father's favorite imperial green bracelet and put it on his wrist.

Everyone thought that His Highness Prince Su was doing this to leave a memory for himself, but in fact, Prince Su wanted to take his father's bracelet to remind himself that he would not be as confused as his father when he gets old in the future.

To be honest, when he thinks about his father, he still feels itchy in his heart.

He had never enjoyed his father's love in his life. Throughout his life, the old emperor always showed disgust and suppression towards him. He had endured it for forty years, and now he finally didn't have to endure it anymore!

The cabinet showed the finalized posthumous title and temple name to King Su, who was already dressed in linen and filial piety.

Posthumous title: Fatian Li Daoren Ming Cheng Jing Zhaowen Xianwu to Deguang Xiaorui Emperor

Temple name: Xingzu

After King Su looked at it, he took his father's jade beads string in his hand and quickly turned it around. The green jade beads made a rattling sound, as if they were jumping on the tense nerves of the ministers.

The third prince who was about to become the new king sneered, took a red pen and crossed out the word "Xingzu" and wrote the word "Huizong". The eyelids of the ministers jumped. This was more than a slight demotion.

His Highness Prince Su hated his father to the very core.

After that, he crossed out the word "Renming" in the posthumous title and changed it to "Yingyi", crossed out the word "Zhaowen" and added nothing, and finally changed the word "Rui" to "Xian".

After he finished writing, he read it again, "Fa Tian established Dao Ying, resolutely, sincerely, respected Xian Wu, and the emperor was virtuous, broad and filial."

After reading, he nodded, threw the bright yellow silk edict to Yan Shoufu, and said: "That's it. That's enough."

All the ministers were sweating, and King Su said again: "Send a message to Nanjing and ask the eldest brother and the fourth brother to come back for the funeral!"

In the days that followed, King Su and a group of concubines and brothers and sisters collectively cried.

On the first day of the old emperor's death, the new emperor's first edict was to designate his wife, Concubine Meng Shu, as the Queen Mother of Honesty and Filial Piety!

Everyone has to kneel, including King Su Li Jin himself. Only Concubine Shu has an armchair to sit aside and accept the kneeling worship of all the female family members!

Song Qingyue was seated very close to the front this time and cried very hard. Drawing on the experience of crying last time, she changed the pepper water to ginger water, so as not to burn herself to death.

The concubines cried the hardest, especially the several young concubines who were listed on the "Burial List" by Emperor Jingning, who almost cried their hearts out and lungs out.

King Su couldn't bear to hear their cries, and he felt that his father, a bad old man, was not worthy to go to the earth to enjoy so many beauties. He should be in the sky or on the earth, keeping his eyes open to see how capable his son was and how he was better than him.

How many!

So with a wave of his hand, he directly burned the burial list, and asked the carpenters from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to work overnight to carve out a batch of ugly wooden figurines for Dad to replace the concubines who were originally going to be buried.

Song Qingyue looked at those wooden figurines and couldn't help but twitch at the corner of her mouth. They were so ugly! How much hatred and resentment, His Highness Prince Su would do this to the Emperor's father.

As for Eunuch Yin, he originally prepared the poisoned wine himself, but when the cup was put to his mouth, the old eunuch hesitated again and went to find Li Zhao in the middle of the night.

"Your Highness, please forgive me for visiting me late at night." When he entered, he bowed to the ground and kowtowed.

Li Zhao was still wearing a white mourning dress. He was sitting in a chair with a gentle and elegant look and a gentle smile: "I heard that my father-in-law has even prepared poisonous wine, why haven't you drank it yet?"

"The old slave is still useful!" Eunuch Yin grabbed the ground with his head.

"Tell me about it." Li Zhao took a sip of tea calmly.

"Before King Shen escaped, His Majesty gave him an imperial edict stamped with the imperial seal!" After saying this, Eunuch Yin lay on the ground and did not dare to raise his head.

This surprised Li Zhao. He held his head and thought for a while, then turned to Lin Wanfu and said, "Hurry up and call your father!"

"yes."

After half a cup of tea, Prince Su, dressed in linen and filial piety, was invited.

When he entered the door and saw Eunuch Yin lying on the ground, King Su raised his eyebrows in surprise, playing with his father's bead string in his hand, and said with a smile: "Eunuch, if you don't come to see me, you would rather come to see our Highness."
To be continued...