In Chang'an, in the Weiyang Palace, Liu Xie sat on the throne, with an upright body and a serious face.
Although Li Jue and others controlled Kyoto, they did not think about what to do with Liu Xie, or Li Jue and others did not consider such an issue at all. Therefore, the officials who survived the disaster began to demand peace.
As before, order was restored in the imperial court, and when the imperial meeting was held on the 15th day of the lunar month, Li Jue and Guo Si, who were staying in Chang'an City, seemed to have found no reason to refute.
Then open it.
Isn't it just a court meeting?
Li Jue and Guo Si were a little fresh at first. After all, they had never attended any court meeting before. However, as the court meeting progressed, Li Jue and Guo Bang quickly fell into a state of confusion.
"...I served as an envoy before the captives, not specifically Han people, but I saw their feelings and came from them. Yu Yi from the Eastern Capital, hairpin belt from the Western Capital, now the felt horse is used as a curtain bed, the crown and hat are stained by the yellow sand, the left fold is blown away by the wind, the ancestral temple
How can I bear to cry..."
"...There is no restraint in military and military affairs. They bow and give way. They are just trying to gain advantage without teaching. How can they share the shackles of hardship? When the spring grass grows in the water, it hinders the movement of the scattered horses. The autumn wind falls and the trees stop driving away the joy of the birds. The three locust trees cannot stop boiling in the water.
In Sangxu, God's grace has never been to the fields, and the fierce tribe of captives has definitely gained its ambition. How can it be like a disease..."
Li Jue and Guo Bang opened their eyes wide, as if they were hearing a book from heaven.
Liu Xie remained silent, and even his eyes did not move at all. He stared blankly at the void ahead. The officials did not care at all whether Liu Xie expressed anything. They just stepped forward one after another to start playing:
"...there are 3,804 households with destroyed houses in Jingzhao, and 13,570 people have no fixed homes. Please ask the workers to prepare 3,500 square meters of large wood and 14,000 square pillars.
…”
"...the number of refugees increased, and the four counties dug ground for shelters and felled trees for shelters. Many people died of hunger. I asked you to open Taicang to provide relief, and the money and food needed were also noted..."
"...the official salary has not been paid for two months, and the total grain requirement is 21,700 dendrobium..."
"..."
Li Jue and Guo Si looked at each other blankly, completely at a loss. This was completely different from how they led troops to fight. There was not even a little bit of reference for them. They could only let the officials chatter countless words and figures.
lingering in their ears.
Suddenly, the hall became quiet. The officials who took turns to perform the performance finally stopped and focused their attention on Li Jue and Guo Bang.
Li Jue: "..."
Guo Si: "..."
Baiguan: "..."
Liu Xie: "..."
In the main hall of Weiyang Palace, there seemed to be a pantomime, and it seemed like a complete farce.
Li Jue stood up from the mat, shook his legs that were a little numb after sitting on his knees, looked around, and said: "...Have you finished talking? Well, let's just let it go..."
After saying that, he walked out of the hall as if nothing happened.
Guo Bang stood up silently, and then walked out unsteadily, leaving Liu Xie and all the officials in the main hall...
Liu Xie looked at the leaving figures of Li Jue and Guo Si. After a long time, he moved slightly, as if recovering from a frozen state, and said softly, with an unspeakable hoarseness in his voice: "...
... My dear friends, what else can you do? If you have something to report, if you have nothing to do...withdraw from the court..."
Officials, you look at me, I look at you, and then look at Liu Xie on the throne, silent.
Attendant Xun You reported: "...Your Majesty, these chapters..."
Liu Xie was silent, and then said softly: "...Keep it...I...will take a look..."
"Your Majesty, Holy Ming!"
"I respectfully send you off to Your Majesty!"
As the eunuch's sharp voice shouted out the word "dismissal of the dynasty", all the officials skillfully straightened their clothes on the mat, then prostrated themselves to the ground. After the eunuch shouted, they waited for Liu Xie to leave the throne and turn to the screen.
After that, they stood up one after another, as if they had been following the rules for decades, or even three or four hundred years. Everyone slowly exited the hall in small steps according to their official position...
Whether it is an old man with a gray beard, a middle-aged man in the prime of life, or even some young people, their actions seem to be carved out of a template. Even their steps are at the same point, uniform but lifeless.
He walked out of the empty hall and the desolate Weiyang Palace.
They have become accustomed to such rules, as if they have been deeply imprinted in the blood of their bodies, whether it is Yuan Wei or Dong Zhuo, whether they are in Luoyang or Chang'an, whether they were wielding a long knife to slash at
Even Li Jue and Guo Si, who had defeated their colleagues, seemed unable to change the habits and rules they had formed over time.
Liu Xie, who had moved to the back hall, closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath. His originally straight spine seemed to be bent by the heavy court uniform. It suddenly collapsed and curled up under the shadow of the room.
A bunch.
"Your Majesty..." the eunuch serving beside Liu Xie said softly, as if he was afraid that if his voice was louder, Liu Xie would be frightened, "... Your Majesty... it's time to change..."
In order to show their majesty, the emperor's court uniforms in the Han Dynasty were extremely complicated and layered. Coupled with the heavy crown, they all weighed down on a child in his early ten years, which looked funny but a little sad.
"..." Liu Xie nodded silently and walked slowly to the back room. Even with this heavy burden, he still had to put it on and put it on until...
A ray of sunlight shot in through the gap in the window lintel, forming a beam of light. I don't know whether it was because the room was too dirty, or the people walking just now stirred up dust like fog and smoke, which danced crazily in the beam of light.
.
Liu Xie stopped and stood in the shadow behind the light beam, as if he would be injured if exposed to the light. He quietly looked at the dust in the light beam that was close at hand, his eyes floating with the dust.
.
who I am?
Am I the emperor of the Han Dynasty?
Is this what the emperor of the Han Dynasty was like?
Liu Xie had questions in his mind that he had been thinking about over and over again day and night, but no one could give him answers to these questions, and no one would answer him.
Liu Xie sometimes felt like he was like the tablets enshrined high up in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Although they were painted with gold, silver, and cinnabar, everyone seemed to respect him very much and pay homage to him, but in fact no one really paid homage to him.
Take him seriously, just like no one takes the tablets in the Ancestral Temple seriously.
How long will this kind of life continue, how long will this kind of behavior continue, Liu Xie can't find the answer, maybe there is no answer at all, but Liu Xie knows one thing, and he repeats it every day:
"...The big man...can never be cut off in my hands...never..."
