Although winter has just begun and it has already started to snow, the palace is covered in silver and completely silent. The eunuchs in the palace are hiding in the corridors holding brooms, just waiting for the snow to stop before cleaning up.

The back pavilion was as warm as spring. Chai Rong placed his hands on the charcoal basin, rubbed his hands gently, closed his eyes slightly, and listened to the sound of the piano that surrounded the pavilion.

There is a guqin placed on the short table beside it. Two beautiful women in palace clothes are sitting on their knees behind the short table, plucking the strings back and forth with their slender fingers. The sound of the piano is different from the common melodious music, and the sound is loud and clear.

It is like the sound of bells, the sound of trumpets, and the faint sound of killing like spears clashing.

Although it was winter, there was already a slight drop of sweat on the foreheads of the two women. It must have been very difficult to play this piece of music. After the song was played, they both let out a sigh of relief.

Chai Rong came back to his senses and said with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work, Queen and Liying!" He also took out a handkerchief from his sleeve to wipe Queen Fu's sweat.

Empress Fu complained: "I and Liying practiced for a long time before they could play this piece well. Your Majesty just dismissed me with just one word of hard work. It's really not worth it."

"If you want me to reward you, just say so. As long as it doesn't involve the affairs of the previous dynasty, I won't refuse."

"This is what your Majesty said!" Queen Fu took Chai Rong's hand and stood up, then said to Fu Liying: "Liying, please go back to the harem. The princess should have woken up by now."

Fu Liying stood up, said a blessing, then hugged Qin and bowed and retreated. When she was far away, Chai Rongcai smiled and said: "What can't you say in front of Liying? Could it be that you want me to find a good marriage for her?"

."

Queen Fu smiled and said: "Your Majesty's guess is correct. This is my concubine's official intention. Liying has already passed her 20th birthday. If she doesn't get married, she will become an old maid."

"Oh, which young man from the prince's family have you fallen in love with? Just tell me and I will make the decision for you."

Empress Fu sighed: "Liying is no longer old enough to be married to a young man. I want to find someone older for her."

"Well, it's appropriate." Chai Rong stroked his beard and pondered for a moment, "What do you think of Gao Huaide? His first wife passed away this year, so why not ask Liying to be his second wife? With his background, I believe your father will not object.

."

Historically, after Gao Huaide's wife passed away, he married Zhao Ningxiu, who had been widowed for a year after getting married. But now Zhao Ningxiu has become Xu Xian's wife. If Gao Huaide marries Fu Liying as a sequel, it will be a one-drink-and-peck order of cause and effect.

Queen Fu reached out and pinched Chai Rong's arm, "Why does your Majesty only think about outsiders and not yourself?"

Chai Rong pointed to his nose, "Are you talking about me?"

"Don't tell me that Your Majesty doesn't like Liying? She is a beautiful woman from the land of Chen Yu Luo Yan, and her concubine can't compare to her. They say that wealth should not go to outsiders, so my sisters can serve the same husband together!"

"Hahaha..." Chai Rong laughed and said, "It's rare for a queen to think of her own family, but I don't want to!"

Empress Fu asked in surprise: "Why? This concubine's move is not only for Liying's lifelong event, but also to fulfill the queen's duty to enrich the harem for your majesty and to have a good family of children. Is it because your majesty dislikes her because of her affair with Xu Xian?"

The two of them did have an affair in the past, but there was no deviant behavior. Liying is still in perfect condition. Your Majesty does not dislike a widow like Chen Concubine, but why do you care about Liying's past?"

Chai Rong pulled Queen Fu into his arms and said, "The queen underestimates me. Even though Liying is beautiful, I will not want a woman who has other men in her heart. Besides, if I really accept her as my concubine, I will spend every day with Xu in the future."

Wouldn't it be awkward to meet Xian?"

Queen Fu immediately said angrily: "That heartless man has already married another man. Besides, Your Majesty is the king and he is the minister. If he is embarrassed, he deserves to be embarrassed."

"The queen knows that during the Battle of Gaoping, Xu Xian rushed out with me immediately. How could I, such a loyal minister, have a problem with him because of a woman?"

Queen Fu snorted, "Your Majesty, you might as well give Liying to him."

"Haha... I also don't want to have any quarrel with my father-in-law. Besides, he is already married..."

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" Privy Councilor Wei Renpu's voice sounded outside the back cabinet, and then the door to the back cabinet was pushed open. Wei Renpu saw the empress embracing each other in the cabinet, and quickly covered his eyes with his sleeves and retreated.

.

Empress Fu said: "Privilege Wei is a mature and prudent person. He came in a hurry despite the heavy snow. He must have important military information, so I resigned."

She sighed and left through the back door. Chai Rong said to Wei Renpu outside the door: "If Wei Qing has anything important to do, just come in and talk!"

Wei Renpu entered the palace and held the three memorials in front of Chai Rong, "These are three urgent reports sent by the Southern Expedition Army."

Chai Rong knew that nothing good would happen and sat behind the case, "Just tell me directly."

Wei Renpu reported: "The Tang State sent out 20,000 troops to cut off our army's retreat from the waterway. In addition to our army's new defeat, Li Xianggong was afraid that the army would be unstable and had withdrawn to Zhengyang County north of the Huaihe River."

With just this sentence, Chai Rong couldn't sit still, "What a Li Gu, he dared to withdraw his troops without my order."

Wei Renpu advised: "In urgent matters, obey authority. Your Majesty, don't blame Xianggong Li too much."

"I don't blame him. I tell him to return to Shouzhou City immediately."

"Xiangong Li said that he has a leg problem and cannot lead troops in battle. Please allow him to return to Beijing and appoint someone else as commander."

"He wants to be the boss, but unfortunately he has so much trust in him that he didn't even send a supervisor to him..."

Chai Rong then remembered that there was an untitled Supervisor in the Southern Expedition Army. He opened the three memorials and looked at the memorials signed by Li Gu, Wang Yanchao and Han Lingkun on the cover. "Why is there no Xu Xian?"

memorial?"

Wei Renpu sighed and replied: "Xiangong Li made it clear in his memorial that Xu Xian and Bai Yanyu were entangled by reinforcements from the Tang Dynasty. Xianggong Li left them on the east bank of the Huaihe River before he could rescue them."

"What!" Chai Rong slapped the table, "What! Li Gu threw his subordinates away!"

"At that time, the navy of the Tang Dynasty was only half a day away from the main camp. Xu Xian and Bai Yanyu were forced to fifty miles east of Shouzhou City. It was too late to rescue them, otherwise more people would be left on the east bank. Li Xianggong did not want to be blamed for this.

It's a small loss but a big loss, we can only leave Xu Xian and Bai Yanyu behind."

"How many soldiers and horses do they have? How many soldiers and horses does the Tang army have?" The person who asked this question was not Chai Rong, but Old Mutou who was standing by the door.

"Xu Xian and Bai Yanyu had three thousand men under their command, while the Tang army had fifteen thousand men."

Old Mutou clicked his tongue and said, "Then it's over now. There will be no place to drink in the future."

Chai Rong also sighed heavily, "I am so jealous of the talented people, what a pity!"

Old Mu turned his head and looked at the heavy snow outside the corridor, and took a long breath, "It's a pity, there will be no place to drink in the future. I will have to borrow money later to pay off the wine debt I owed. Yes.

Yes, and some of you have been eating and drinking at Changle Building in the past, so I’ll send them over with you later.”

The guard next to him said: "Boss Mu, Xu Dianzhi's family has a lot of money, but the three of us are still short of money!"

"Bah, that's what the person earned himself. In the past, it was all he had to live with. Now that everyone is dead, you still don't give the money back. Do you have any conscience? Remember to take another twenty coins for each person's funeral!"

Even though Chai Rong felt sorry for Xu Xian, he would not feel sad for Xu Xian. He immediately sent his close friends to the back cabinet to discuss countermeasures.

Old Mu Tou took advantage of his lunch break to look for people to borrow money, so more people with "conscience" began to borrow money, and things spread. For example, when Xu Xian died, he received several knives and arrows.

It must have a nose and eyes, as if you saw it with your own eyes.

Zhao Ningxiu didn't have much appetite recently. If it weren't for Brother Huan, she wouldn't even bother to cook. After eating half a bowl of soup cake, she couldn't swallow it. She poured it all to Brother Huan. Seeing that the snow outside was not falling, she took it.

Use the broom to sweep the snow.

A Bao was not afraid of the cold at all. He rolled around in the snow from time to time and seemed to be very excited. Zhao Ningxiu made a snowball and threw it on its head. A Bao just turned his head and looked at her without bothering to look at it and then looked after himself.

play.

That naive look made Zhao Ningxiu want to laugh. Xu Xian was not at home. Only she and Brother Huan lived in this huge and deserted courtyard. Without A Bao, the family would have lost a lot of fun.

Brother Huan quickly came over, reached out and grabbed the broom from Zhao Ningxiu's hand, "Leave it to me to sweep. Madam has not been energetic these days, so it is best to rest."

"You still have a clue. If he is at home, he will be too lazy to do these tasks!"

Brother Huan swept the snow on the ground, "Madam, you are joking, Alang is a person who does big things, I should be doing small things like this... Hey, who are you, and why are you sneaking around outside?"

."

Several strong men pushed the door open and asked, "This is the residence of Xu Dianzhi!" After seeing Zhao Ningxiu's appearance clearly, they said, "That's right, this is it!"

When Lao Mu came to Zhao Ningxiu, he cupped his hands and said, "Do you still recognize me, Madam Xu?"

Zhao Ningxiu snorted, "Why don't you recognize me? You often eat and drink at Changle Building."

"It's me, but that's all in the past, and it will never happen again." Old Mutou said, handing two pieces of money to Zhao Ningxiu, "This is the money I usually owe, and today I owe you the money."

Return it to you."

Several other people also brought the money to Zhao Ningxiu. Zhao Ningxiu looked in disbelief, "The sun really comes out from the west. Wait until I go back to get the account book."

"Don't worry, you will definitely need it. I will only give you a little more. In addition to the food and wine money, there is also twenty cash for the funeral."

Zhao Ningxiu was startled when she heard this, "What a funeral ceremony!"

"This is Xu Dianzhi's funeral ceremony. On Lady's Day, please bear with me."

How could a veteran like Lao Mutou, who didn't even take his own life seriously, feel the pain of others? He opened his mouth and spit out a sharp sword and stabbed Zhao Ningxiu in the heart.

When Zhao Ningxiu heard this, she was startled, her eyebrows stood up, and she scolded: "What nonsense are you talking about? My husband is currently fighting with the army in Huainan."

"He died because he was fighting with the army. There are no eyes for swords and arrows in the battlefield, but it doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor... oh... why are you beating people..."

Zhao Ningxiu snatched the broom from Brother Huan's hand, beat several people on their heads and faces, and roared: "Nonsense, my family is doing well, who cares about your stinky money, get the hell away from me."

After driving the people away, Zhao Ningxiu panted and leaned against the courtyard door. It took a long time before she calmed down. She smiled and said to Brother Huan: "Keep the door tight. Don't let irrelevant people in."

Zhao Ningxiu returned to the hall and drank tea quietly with a face as deep as water. Only one pair of eyes looked at the courtyard door with anxiety.

Everything is developing in the worst direction, and more and more people are knocking on the door. At first, they were veterans who came to pay back money, and later it was neighbors knocking on the door.

Even Aunt Liu started to cry, and her loud voice could be heard sitting in the hall, "I told Da Lang that he should resign from office, study and do business, but now it's a good thing that the young man is gone.

Madam, don’t think too hard!”

Then there was a knock on the door. Zhao Ningxiu's hand holding the tea began to tremble at some point. Suddenly, her hand slipped and the tea bowl fell to the ground and shattered. Her tense emotions finally collapsed at this moment.

She stumbled towards the backyard and closed the door after entering the house. The noise outside finally became quieter. She sat on the chair and hugged her shoulders, shivering. Tears fell silently from the corners of her eyes, silently venting the surge in her heart.

of sadness.
To be continued...