They were walking on the street when they were talking. When passing by a stall selling jewelry, Gu Qinghuan stopped, chose a pair of hairpins, and turned around and asked Lu Bai: "Wang'er, do you think they look good when you wear them?"
Lu Bai nodded, this hairpin was Wang'er's style.
Wang'er's style is full of wind, wind and fire. He is as quiet as a stray rabbit and as active as a mad rabbit. His whole figure is like a fire.
Lu Qinghuan wanted to hold her down and let her practice calligraphy and reading for a while. It was difficult, but Lu Bai asked her to practice martial arts. She was very interested and devoted herself to it, even though she was exhausted, she still enjoyed it.
Although she and Gu Qinghuan were carved from the same mold in appearance, they were completely different in character.
Lu Qinghuan paid the money and handed it to Yun Niang behind him, "You also remember to buy her a gift, so that she won't give up."
Lu Bai nodded, indicating that he remembered.
Gu Qinghuan continued: "As the saying goes, brother eventually succeeds brother. According to the wishes of the minister, the throne that the Supreme Emperor took over from Emperor Dawu should be respected as the father of Emperor Dawu's father, Emperor Dade. According to the folk saying, the Supreme Emperor adopted the throne to Dade.
The emperor was able to inherit the throne because of this, so he should call the virtuous emperor his father and his biological father his uncle."
If it were a different emperor who was at the mercy of his ministers, he would probably have followed the wishes of his ministers and changed his title.
However, being young means being energetic, being smart means being arrogant, and being strong-willed means being independent.
"The Emperor was determined not to change, and the officials led by the noble family were determined to ask him to change. Therefore, a years-long ceremonial debate began over the question of who the Emperor should be called father," said Gu Qinghuan.
The great ritual discussion does not harm the interests of the eight major sects. It is purely for the aristocratic families to fight for their own interests. Therefore, the eight major factions do not pay attention to these noises in the secular world and will not protect the aristocratic families they support. Therefore, during the great ritual discussion
Among the dead, there are many people from aristocratic families.
Gu Qinghuan said: "The head of the Lu family at that time, Lu Yiqiu's father, died during the ceremony."
When they were on the lake, Gu Qinghuan said that the Lu family would hate the Supreme Emperor for killing their father, which was what he was referring to.
"Well--"
Erha and Hong Tailang thought this question was boring.
But they thought about it and realized that if they had no son, after death, there would be a big difference whether the monster who passed on the title of Monster King would call them father or uncle.
They think this is a big problem again.
However, from the perspective of the courtiers, they felt that this question was very boring. It was nothing but the royal family's business. It didn't matter what they did. They were all officials after all. Whose son was an official was not an official.
Gu Qinghuan ignored them, but looked at Lu Bai who was deep in thought, waiting for him to speak.
Lu Bai was meditating not for anything else, but because the plot seemed a bit familiar.
However, there is still a little difference.
The most critical point is, "The emperor is not only an emperor, but also a son of heaven. By doing this, the great emperor will not be afraid that the virtuous emperor who has ascended to heaven will not recognize him. When he wants to ascend, what will he do if the emperors in heaven don't open the back door for him?
."
"By the way." Lu Bai asked Gu Qinghuan, "Have the Grand Emperor's grandfather and father ascended?"
Gu Qinghuan shook his head.
Lu Bai clapped his hands and said, "Hey, I said that the Supreme Emperor is talented and owns half of the country. Why hasn't he ascended yet? I dare to offend his superiors."
Erha and Hong Tailang were stunned.
They couldn't help but look up at the sky, "Don't say it, uncle, what you said makes some sense."
"Of course it makes sense. What is this called? There are people in the court who are easy to do things, and the same is true in the sky. His grandfather has not ascended, and his grandfather's father probably has not ascended. When his grandfather's grandfather comes, he may not bother to care about these grandchildren.
Now. Now he doesn’t recognize the Dade Emperor as his father——" Lu Bai shook his head, the Supreme Emperor had blocked Bai’s back door.
Gu Qinghuan nodded, "During the great rites discussion at that time, this was an important point that the officials insisted on besides the 'rituals'."
However, the Emperor was young at the time.
As the same saying goes, being young means being energetic, being young and talented means being unruly, and being young and talented means that he feels that he has unlimited possibilities. Even if the door is closed, he feels that he can rely on talent and practice to reach the sky step by step.
Knock open the fairy door.
Gu Qinghuan was afraid that Lu Bai would not know the difference between the two, so he compared them specifically: "Emperors in the past mostly ascended to the semi-immortal realm. When they ascended, they did not go through the catastrophe of fire and thunder, and there were immortals who opened the door to welcome them. They were extremely honored and favored, and extremely luxurious. And.
Ordinary practitioners, because they have no way, they all rely on their own practice to improve their realm. When they reach the realm, survive the catastrophe of heavenly fire and thunder, and avoid the destruction of both body and spirit, they will naturally ascend, climb to the gate of heaven, and knock on the door.
."
The Supreme Emperor is young and energetic. He thinks that if these practitioners can do it, he can do it too.
Emperors in the past have failed to do it, but if he does it, it will be an unprecedented feat that will be hard to come by. He can be called an emperor through the ages!
Therefore, during the ceremonial meeting, the Supreme Emperor did not take the minister's advice to heart at all.
Lu Bai nodded.
In this regard, he quite understood the Emperor.
When he was young in his previous life, he also felt that he was an extraordinary person and was destined to rise with the wind like a roc and soar up to 90,000 miles in one day.
Even if his talent is surpassed by others, he still feels that through subsequent study and hard work, he will surpass the other person. This kind of youthful and frivolous behavior lasted until he reached middle age and realized that he was just an ordinary person.
Therefore, procrastination is a must, and the determination to work hard should come after hard work, not before.
"Actually, there may be other reasons." Lu Bai said.
The officials were so concerned about the royal affairs that they even risked their lives. They were certainly not simply trying to find a son for the virtuous emperor.
Gu Qinghuan didn't say anything, but asked: "What do you think the reason might be?"
Lu Bai thought for a while.
Imperial power, aristocratic families, and spiritual sects.
The spiritual sects were unable to move, and the imperial power was declining at that time. This was a good time for the aristocratic families that survived in the cracks to struggle. Therefore, the aristocratic families and officials stood against the emperor in the great ceremony, which was to kill the emperor's prestige and gain some rights for them.
.
This right does not necessarily have to override the imperial power, but at least it restrains the imperial power so that the emperor will not beat or kill them whenever he wants because of some unfounded charges.
Gu Qinghuan nodded happily, "That's exactly the reason."
And this constraint is the word ritual.
Etiquette comes from the writings of sages and has always been the code of conduct for officials to cultivate themselves and govern the country and the world. The emperor uses these to demand his ministers to be benevolent, righteous, propriety, wise, trustworthy, loyal, filial, honest, shameless and courageous. However, no one restrains the emperor.
The purpose of the ministers' great etiquette discussion was to get the emperor to come into this framework and allow etiquette to restrain the emperor.
"When the emperor also observes etiquette, the officials no longer need to walk on thin ice and speculate about the holy will all day long. They can devote themselves to making money and treasures for the master behind them, and then find more for their own family.
It’s a benefit.” Gu Qinghuan said.
"This is a bit interesting." Lu Bai didn't expect it to be so deep.
This is a bit like a constitutional monarchy. The constitution is equivalent to this ritual. It’s just that these ministers tried to use some methods of admonishment to achieve it. It was a bit too naive. After all, it succeeded this time. The emperor still wants to kill him next time.
They will kill.
An ethereal gift requires tools to execute it.
It would be fine for a cultivation sect to do this job.
However, due to the lack of strong support from the cultivation sect behind them, in this grand ceremony, more than 100 officials among the hundreds were eventually sent to prison, and more than 100 people were beaten to death. After 20 or 30 people were beaten to death,
It ended with the emperor's victory.
The subsequent struggles were all follow-ups to this great ceremony.
For example, in the case of the fruit seller, the emperor had Gu Qinghuan's grandfather beaten to death to settle accounts after the fall. The palace coup mentioned by Lu Qinghuan on the lake was a group of palace maids trying to drug the emperor to death. According to legend, it was Concubine Lu who secretly planned it to avenge her father.
.
As for the truth——
Gu Qinghuan was not sure whether this case was planned by Concubine Lu. Anyway, Concubine Lu was beaten to death naked by the emperor after the palace coup, without a piece of intact flesh on her body.
What's even more strange is that in a palace fire not long after, the then Queen Mo was burned alive.
According to legend, the eunuch in the palace wanted to save someone, but was stopped by the emperor.
However, even if the fog is thick, the rumors are inconsistent, and the truth is forever buried in the soil, there is always a shadow lingering over these cases, and that is the Great Ceremony.
"call--"
Lu Bai sighed, he finally figured this out.
"The Supreme Emperor is also very ambitious. He killed the Lu family like this and still dares to practice in Yiqiu Villa." He said.
Gu Qinghuan pointed around, "So, why do you think Yongle City became the Yongle City of the Lu family? Why does Yancheng pay so much salt tax every year. All of this is for compensation."
As for the aristocratic family, which only cares about interests more than gold, they naturally put aside these hatreds.
However, it is okay to bring out these hatreds occasionally and provoke them. What Lu Qinghuan said on the lake was just provocation and making the Lu family uncomfortable.
"These people's hearts are made of flesh, and they are all selfish. The Supreme Emperor has not yet become an immortal, so he may not know what he is thinking." Gu Qinghuan said with a chuckle.
Lu Bai discovered that his aunt was very evil.
However, he likes it.
Lu Bai and others stood in front of the Jinyi Guards and asked the guards in front of the door to report.
These guards knew Lu Bai.
It is estimated that they were just bowing and setting up arrows on the shore. They had already seen the power of Gu Qinghuan and Lu Bai, so they did not dare to delay and hurried to report.
It was a neat move and there was really no delay.
They didn't even invite Lu Bai in for a cup of tea.
Even after going in to report, Li Qianhu asked the Jin Yiwei to send a message to Lu Bai to wait for a while, but did not say to invite Lu Bai in to sit down.
Apparently, what Gu Qinghuan said on the lake scared the powerful people of Yongle City so much that they were afraid that they would accidentally anger Lu Bai and make Lu Bai go to check the accounts under the banner of rebellion.
Lu Bai has a very high level. This accurate check is equivalent to giving Lu Bai an excuse to kill them.
They wouldn't be stupid enough to hand over the knife themselves.
Li Qianhu didn't invite him to tea, and Lu Bai didn't care either.
He glanced around and saw a tea shop opposite, so he led Gu Qinghuan and others to sit there and asked the waiter to make a pot of good tea.
After taking a sip of tea, Lu Bai said: "The Supreme Emperor has swallowed a bitter pill now."
He no longer had the frivolity and low self-esteem of his youth. As he grew older, his heart was as high as the sky but could only slowly descend. When he finally fell into the mortal world, the Supreme Emperor finally realized that a choice he made back then had made the difficulty of his ascension increase countless times.
.
So, he accepted his fate, licked his face and took refuge in the Sword Immortal, and the aristocratic family that he had suppressed miserably, hoping that their leader would become an immortal himself, or that the Sword Immortal in heaven could send a message for him to the emperors of the past dynasties in heaven.
A few kind words.
This allows him to easily ascend and enter the Immortal Sect.
"but--"
Lu Bai wondered if there was another possibility, that is, he could have ascended, but the level was not yet there.
After all, most of the emperors who ascended in the past were in the semi-immortal realm, which shows that there are still many emperors who ascended after their realm exceeded the semi-immortal realm.
"What you said makes sense." Gu Qinghuan nodded.
But the Emperor is anxious.
He is now in the semi-immortal realm. As long as he does not ascend for a day, the gloating about his wrong choice in the Great Ceremony will always exist. Not only others are gloating about his misfortune, he may also be murmuring in his heart, wondering whether he made the wrong choice.
The result was that he became unstable.
Regardless of whether he was cultivating at Yiqiu Villa or trying to get the Sword Immortal to speak kindly to him, his mind was in a state of confusion.
As long as the mind of this practice is confused, it will be difficult to improve the state.
Lu Bai sighed, every drink and every peck was destined to happen. Just because of a choice made by the Supreme Emperor back then, so many things happened.
From this point of view, when the Supreme Emperor was in power, he allowed Yongle City to kill officials, refugees, and Gu Qinghuan, most likely because he wanted to sell well to Yiqiu Villa and buy a regret medicine.
but--
Lu Bai was thinking that one day he would tell the Emperor in person that there is no regret medicine in this world. If there is one, you have to buy two.
Li Qianhu's people quickly escorted Yang Liangting from the magistrate's cell. Without much interrogation, they handed him over to Lu Bai and took the fox demon into Jinyiwei's prison.
At the moment they handed over, Lu Bai got a reminder from the panel and he got a chance to draw a lottery.
Lu Bai was in no hurry to smoke.
He asked Hong Tailang and Erha to get Yang Liangting back quickly, and then asked Lang Zhong to heal his injuries. Finally, Lu Bai used the Turtle Breathing Technique to heal his injuries. When he was almost recovered, he would ask the question again.
News from the capital's cloth merchants is not late either.
After a few more days of delay, Yang Liangting spoke eloquently and told Lu Bai another useful clue: "There are plum blossoms on the cloth merchant's cloth."
Coming from the capital, there is a story about plum blossoms.
Lu Bai and the others followed this clue and found many cloth merchants selling plum blossom cloth and silk in Yongle City.
However, after Yang Liangting gave them a detailed description and even a rough sketch of the face of this capital cloth merchant, these cloth merchants all expressed that they did not recognize this person.
"This is not surprising." Gu Qinghuan said.
Meihuaji is a business name of the Shen family in the south of the Yangtze River, one of the aristocratic families. The fabrics and silk produced by Meihuaji are famous for their good quality, and are sold all over the country, both at home and abroad. The barbarians in the north are also flocking to it.
This caused many second-level dealers to buy Meiji fabrics and silks in Jiangnan and transport them to remote places such as Yongle City and Yancheng to resell them for profit. Therefore, the Meiji fabrics and silks sold by Yongle City cloth merchants did not necessarily come from the same family.
This time it stumped people.
Hong Tailang said: "Even if he doesn't come from one family, then there must be one who knows this cloth merchant, right?"
But the fact is that they searched Yongle City and couldn't find a business that knew this cloth merchant.
"Didn't he come to Yongle City to do cloth business?" Hong Tailang put forward an idea.
Erha also had a different idea, "Could it be that because he saw Lian'er being beautiful, he deliberately fabricated his identity, and also fabricated the origin of the lion ball's infancy, and deceived Lian'er away?"
Hong Tailang frowned, thinking it was very possible, "Damn, you are finally smart, but you didn't expect Lian'er to be in bad luck."