Logically speaking, an important northern minister like Shen Yi should go back to his home to rest for a day or two after arriving in Jiankang, and then wait for an auspicious day before His Majesty the Emperor summons him to the palace again.
But after all, Mr. Shen was already very familiar with His Majesty the Emperor. He had just arrived in Jiankang, and even though the sky was already dark, His Majesty still sent someone to take him to the palace.
The three princes took Shen Yi all the way to the entrance of the palace. After arriving at the entrance of the palace, the three of them stopped in unison, bowed their hands to Shen Yi and said, "Uncle, the nephews will be sent here. You can go in and see your majesty." "
Shen Yi looked back at the palace gate, and then he realized what was happening and said with a smile: "It seems that the three highnesses have already left the palace to open their mansions."
The three of them bowed their heads and said yes.
Shen Yi stopped being pretentious and, led by several eunuchs, came all the way to the gate of Ganlu Palace.
After arriving at the Manlu Hall, a eunuch who looked about thirty years old and had a fair face and no beard came to Shen Yi respectfully, bowed his head and said, "Master Marquis, Your Majesty, please come in."
Mr. Shen nodded, followed the man, and suddenly asked: "Is this Eunuch Wei?"
The eunuch stopped quickly and lowered his head deeply: "Master Hou has something to tell me..."
"fine."
Shen Yi smiled: "In the north, I also heard some of the famous names of Wei Eunuch, and they were like thunder to my ears."
Eunuch Wei lowered his head and said, "Master Hou has killed this slave."
The great eunuch Sun Jin was replaced by Emperor Hongde eight years ago and left to guard the imperial mausoleum. The father-in-law who replaced Sun Jin in charge of the inner court eight years ago was named Xiao Minghuai and is now the great eunuch of the inner court.
And this Eunuch Wei is a rising star in the inner court in the past two years, and he is likely to replace Eunuch Xiao.
After Mr. Shen entered the Manlu Hall, not long after, he met His Majesty the Emperor in the back hall who was reading at night. At the moment, His Majesty the Emperor was looking through a geographical map. Shen Yi stepped forward and bowed his head in salute. : "Your Majesty, Shen Yi, pays homage to His Majesty."
When the emperor heard this, he looked up at Shen Yi, then put down the scroll in his hand, with a smile on his face: "Shen Qing has finally arrived."
Mr. Shen quickly lowered his head and said, "I am about to apologize to Your Majesty."
"My rebellious son, who had the emperor's orders, did not care about it at all. He traveled all the way back to the north and caused trouble. He did not return to Yanjing until more than half a month ago. It was also more than half a month ago that I knew about your majesty's intention. I summoned you to go south, so I came all the way in a hurry."
"I have failed to teach my son well, please forgive me."
"Ai."
The emperor shook his head and said: "When I told Shen Yuan, I just asked him to ask you. I didn't insist that you come. If there is something urgent and you come here, I will give you an edict directly."
"Come on, come on."
The emperor stood up, pulled Shen Yi's sleeve, and said with a smile: "Let's sit down and talk."
Shen Yi sat down carefully, then raised his head to look at the emperor. Under the dim light, Mr. Shen looked at the emperor for a few times, and suddenly he was stunned: "Your Majesty..."
The emperor was pouring tea for Mr. Shen. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "What's wrong?"
"you…"
Shen Yi looked at the emperor's head and was a little surprised: "Why do you have white hair?"
Under the light, you can already vaguely see that Emperor Hong De has a few white hairs on his head. Although it is not a lot, it is already a lot if you can clearly see it.
Emperor Hong De was stunned by this question, and then he smiled dumbly: "Next year, I will be forty years old. Isn't it normal to have some gray hair?"
Shen Yi took a deep breath and said: "The last time I was in Jiankang, His Majesty still had black hair..."
He paused and felt a little dazed: "Even now, Your Majesty is not yet forty years old, he is in his prime."
Emperor Hong De poured tea for Shen Yi, was silent for a while, and sighed: "I didn't have any gray hair at this time last year."
"Starting from the second half of last year, my mother suddenly fell seriously ill and has been bedridden until now. I am worried every day and coupled with the heavy workload of the country, some gray hairs have appeared unknowingly."
Having said this, His Majesty the Emperor lowered his head to drink tea and looked at Shen Yi.
"It's not easy to be an emperor."
Emperor Hong De exhaled a breath of hot air and said with a bitter smile: "It was you, Shen Qing, who caused me so much trouble."
Mr. Shen looked astonished: "Your Majesty, where do you start with these words?"
His Majesty the Emperor said with a smile: "If Da Chen didn't have a genius like Shen Qing, he would still be in the south of the Yangtze River. As an emperor, even if I had great ambitions when I was young and worked hard to rule for ten or eight years, when I reach middle age, I will naturally If you slack off, you may gradually become unconscious."
"At that time, it will be much easier and it won't be as hard as now."
Speaking of this, His Majesty the Emperor sighed again: "Now, Shen Qing, you have achieved such great achievements, and together with me, the emperor, I have become a worthy emperor in the history of Dachen."
"At this point, if I become a foolish king again, I can't stand up to the spirits of my ancestors in heaven, and I can't stand up to you, Shen Qing, and the soldiers who died in the Northern Expedition, and then..."
He shook his head and smiled: "I am also sorry for myself."
"I still want to leave some good reputation in the history books."
Shen Yi took the tea with both hands. After taking a sip, he suddenly looked up at the emperor and said softly: "Your Majesty, history books are written by scholars. If you want to leave a good reputation in the history books, you must give benefits to the scholars. No. To offend scholars."
"In this case, moving the capital..."
Shen Yi took a sip of tea and said, "It won't be easy to handle."
His Majesty the Emperor blinked at Shen Yi and regained some of his youthful spirit: "So, aren't I inviting Shen Qing to come back?"
Mr. Shen also blinked and pretended not to hear.
The emperor smiled and said: "Your son, in Jiankang this year, has been like a little overlord. I have taken care of many things for him. Shouldn't Shen Qing do more to compensate me?"
Marquis Shen smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, I am not afraid of offending those scholars, but if I only rely on you to handle this matter, I am afraid it will be extremely difficult. If you do not do it well, you will get a bad reputation that will bring trouble to the court."
The emperor smiled slightly: "So there is no rush in this matter. We, the emperor and his ministers, will make a thorough discussion."
"We worked together and even drove away Zhu Zhenren, but we still couldn't defeat those big-headed scholars?"
Mr. Shen smiled and did not answer.
After chatting for a few more times about court matters, Shen Yi finally remembered the business and asked, "Your Majesty, what happened to the Queen Mother? How is her health now?"
When Shen Yi mentioned the Queen Mother, the smile on His Majesty's face disappeared, and the excitement of meeting his old friend was also washed away. After being silent for a while, he sighed silently: "The Queen Mother has always been in good health, but she started to have a high fever last autumn. It didn't go away, and after winter came, I couldn't even get sick anymore. It was a little difficult to get out of bed. Then I started coughing again, and sometimes I coughed up blood."
"The Taiyuan Hospital can only prescribe the right medicine, but so far the root cause of the disease has not been found."
Emperor Hong De said silently: "Right now, she is still bedridden, maybe she will..."
Shen Yi frowned. He stood behind the emperor and suddenly said softly: "Your Majesty, I would like to ask a casual question about this..."
"Is it related to the position of the East Palace?"
The emperor frowned and glanced back at Shen Yi, then shook his head silently and said: "The imperial city is still under my nose. If someone can do such a thing quietly, then I, the emperor, have really done it in vain."
Hearing this, Mr. Shen nodded slightly.
What the emperor said makes sense.
You must know that this is not a mediocre emperor, but an emperor with city government and means. When he was still young, Yang Jingzong was not his opponent. Now the authority of Emperor Hongde is supreme, and no one can quietly He did these little tricks to the Queen Mother silently.
Mr. Shen thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, I would like to visit the Queen Mother."
"It won't happen today."
The emperor looked at the dark night outside and said, "Let's go tomorrow. Tomorrow we, the emperor and his ministers, will go and see our mother."
"You have a lot of ideas."
The emperor said softly: "Maybe we can figure out a way to take care of the queen mother."
Shen Yi shook his head and said: "I have no ability to heal people, but the Queen Mother is my elder, so I should go and have a look."
His Majesty the Emperor lowered his head to drink tea, then put down the tea cup, looked up at Shen Yi, and asked a random question: "Shen Qing, you have met my three sons today, what do you think..."
Master Shen blinked his eyes, looking very innocent.
"Your Majesty, who do you want to see?"
Emperor Hong De smiled hoarsely: "My three sons."
"Third son?"
Mr. Shen shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, I rushed all the way to Jiankang. As soon as I entered Jiankang City, I went straight to the palace and did not see His Highness the Third Highness."
Emperor Hong De glanced at Shen Yi and cursed with a smile.