Envoys from the imperial court came to Beijing one after another, and the emperor became even busier. He had to take time to summon several governors and governors every day.
Last year, we began to implement zoning reform, dividing ten provinces, and merging prefectures and counties. However, there are still dozens of governor's offices and hundreds of prefectures in the world.
The governors and governors who came to the capital for court meetings also had to line up early to wait for arrangements from the palace.
Wu Huaiyu, the governor of Xiazhou, was an exception.
As soon as he arrived outside Chang'an City, the emperor's envoys were already waiting in front of the city gate to greet him and announced that he should enter the palace immediately.
He didn't even have time to go home to bathe and change clothes, so he was taken directly to the palace.
"Huaiyu, someone accused you of treason, what's your explanation?"
In the main hall of Li Zheng, Li Shimin wore a Yishan crown and a bright yellow dragon robe. He walked around the hall with his hands behind his back and slowly said words that would scare the piss out of ordinary courtiers.
Wu Huaiyu didn't panic after hearing this.
He just bowed and said slowly: "I am only nineteen years old this year."
"Um,"
"I only came down from the mountain in June last year,"
"Um."
"My father is just a newly retired brigade commander of the Forbidden Army,"
"Um."
······
The monarch and his ministers were sitting on their knees, while the other was standing with his hands behind his back. Wu Huaiyu spoke one sentence after another, and Li Shimin nodded from time to time.
Faced with the accusation of treason, Wu Huaiyu behaved calmly, and the emperor did not become angry at all. Huaiyu explained his situation in detail. In a word, he was an ordinary young man, but he was appreciated by the Holy Emperor. He was able to do so in less than two years.
In this period of time, he has risen through the ranks and achieved his current fame and title.
Everything is given by the Holy Emperor.
How could Wu Huaiyu conspire to rebel?
Why did he want to rebel?
In a corner of the hall, the living ministers Chu Suiliang and Gao Jifu were recording words and deeds, recording all the words and deeds of the emperor and Wu Huaiyu.
Wu Huaiyu's calmness amazed the two emperor's closest officials. When faced with accusations of treason, ordinary officials would not panic in front of the emperor. At the very least, they would first come up to plead guilty and then make various excuses.
But Wu Huaiyu didn't panic at all, and didn't even explain much. He just said that he was appreciated by the emperor now, and didn't even mention his achievements.
This calmness is admirable, and he is indeed worthy of being crowned Duke at the age of nineteen.
The forty-ninth official of the Tang Dynasty was actually honored, and his fame was not in vain.
Li Shimin pulled Wu Huaiyu up and said, "Hahaha, don't I know this? Come and play chess with me."
The emperor pulled Wu Huaiyu to the royal couch and asked him to get a chessboard and play chess.
"Call Yan Liben and ask him to paint a picture for me and Huaiyu."
The palace servants brought the chessboard and chess pieces, and burned incense and made tea nearby.
Li Shimin asked Huaiyu to take the black lead.
Huaiyu's Go skill is not much better than his backgammon, but the emperor's Go skill is very strong. Fortunately, Huaiyu often played chess with Runniang before. Runniang used to be called Siqi in the Li family. She was very good at chess and taught
Some of Guo Huaiyu's tricks are a bit bluffing.
The emperor did not mention the accusation of rebellion against him, nor even the matter of the Xiazhou Governor's Mansion.
Instead, he asked about his wives, concubines, and children.
Soon, Yan Liben arrived and started painting in a corner.
"Yan Liben is an old man from the Prince of Qin's Palace. He has been Kuzhen of the Prince of Qin's Palace for a long time. By the way, Qiu Yingqi, who you had a conflict with outside the city today, is Yan Liben's nephew."
The two brothers Yan Liben and Yan Lide were both famous for their paintings, but they were also real military aristocrats of Guanlong. Their grandfather, Yan Qing, was the cousin of Yuwenhu.
He was highly respected in both dynasties.
Because of his participation in the elimination of Yu Wenhu, his second son Yan Bi also married the princess of Qingdu.
This princess is the mother of brothers Yan Lide and Qiu Shili's wife.
In his early years, Yan Liben and his nephew Qiu Yingqi started their careers in Kuzhen, the palace of the King of Qin. Now Qiu Yingqi is the commander of the army in Longquan Palace, while Yan Liben has been promoted to the rank of doctor, the chief official of the Ministry of Personnel.
Of course the emperor would not mention this matter without reason.
Obviously he wanted to start a conversation about the Qiu family.
Sure enough, Li Shimin held a white chess piece in his hand, but he never let it go. Instead, he recalled Sa Lu Zi, one of his six horses.
Emperor Li Shimin had six horses, all of which were war horses that accompanied him on his expeditions east and west.
They are Saluzi, Quanmaojun, Qingzhui, Shiwachi, Tellerqiao and Baitiwu.
After he became emperor, he specially asked the Yan Liben brothers to make a picture of the Six Horses, and also used bluestone reliefs, saying that they would be placed in front of his mausoleum in the future.
"Get the picture of my six horses."
The emperor didn't want to play chess anymore, so the servant brought the picture of six horses.
Six scrolls are spread out.
Six horses are displayed.
I have to say that the painting skills of the Yan Liben brothers are indeed excellent, and these six horses were painted really well.
If you look closely, in addition to the six horses, there is also a person in the Six Horses Picture.
But this person is not Li Shimin.
In the salu purple painting, there was a warrior pulling an arrow from a horse. Wu Huaiyu looked familiar to this man, with his iron armor, sword and big beard.
This old man Qiu Qiu Xing Gong.
"In the third year of Wude, I led an army to attack Wang Shichong. The siege lasted for a long time. By February of the fourth year of Wude, Wang Shichong only had Luoyang City left. Dou Jiande of Hebei personally led 100,000 horses south to rescue.
After Wang Shichong learned about it, his courage increased and he sent 20,000 elite soldiers out of the city to fight with our army at Mang Mountain."
When talking about the glorious past, Li Shimin's eyes still sparkle.
Li Shimin was an extraordinary horse-horse emperor. Not only did he conquer most of the battles by himself, he even liked to take risks. Every time he fought, he liked to lead a small group of cavalry to the front line or to conduct reconnaissance behind enemy lines. As a result, many dangerous situations occurred.
That time, Li Shimin, in order to test the strength of Zheng's army, rode Sa Luzi with dozens of fine cavalry to protect him, and rushed directly into the enemy's formation. Zheng's soldiers retreated one after another, and no one dared to block their charge. Many people were killed by them.
Everyone is invincible.
However, due to the obstruction of the long embankment, Li Shimin and his cavalry were separated, leaving only Qiu Xinggong.
"At that time, a group of Zheng Army cavalry rushed over, and their bows and arrows hit Sa Luzi's chest. At the extremely critical moment, Qiu Xinggong turned his horse back and shot all the Zheng Army cavalry off their horses one by one.
, the cavalry behind were afraid of his bravery and did not dare to step forward for a while.
Qiu Xinggong jumped off his horse, pulled out the arrow that was shot by Sa Luzi, and gave his horse to me to ride. Then he held a long sword in one hand and held Sa Luzi in the other, charging forward on foot, shouting loudly, and beheading him continuously.
I defeated more than a dozen Zheng soldiers and finally protected me from the siege and returned to the camp."
"It's a pity that although Sa Luzi was brought back to the camp, he still fell to the ground and died after returning to the camp. Qiu Xinggong was also hit by more than ten arrows and almost turned into a hedgehog. Fortunately, he wore two layers of armor and was not seriously injured, but he also bled a lot.
·······”
When Li Shimin talked about this past incident, he kept patting his legs.
You can imagine what a magnificent scene it was at that time. Li Shimin led a team of elite cavalry and charged straight at the Zheng army, killing them all. As a result, he was also killed and left alone.
Seeing that he was about to die, Qiu Xinggong single-handedly protected the lord and rescued him. Not only did he give his own horse to the lord, but he also took out the lord's injured horse.
They fought on foot and fought their way out.
Wu Huaiyu imagined the scene at that time. Although this kind of scene did not happen once or twice for Li Shimin, even Li Shimin, who claimed to be the emperor, was probably in a critical situation at that time, and he must be very grateful to Qiu Xinggong for his loyalty.
That scene will probably never be forgotten in my lifetime.
This single-handed rescue scene is Qiu Xinggong's best gold medal for avoiding death.
No wonder Qiu Xinggong was impeached many times before, but in the end the emperor could always restore his title. This was an 'old brother' who was truly killed in blood and swords, especially for Li Shimin who had just been emperor for a short time.
Xing Gong, Yuchi Gong, Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, Changsun Wuji, Du Ruhui, Fang Xuanling, Gao Shilian, Zhou Shaofan, Hou Junji and Zhang Liang are the real confidants.
No matter how many problems there are, as long as they are not rebellion, it is nothing.
After all, for Li Shimin, the most important thing at the current stage is to consolidate the imperial power first.
"When I saw Sa Luzi, I thought of Qiu Xinggong. He was good at riding and shooting, and was extremely brave. After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, he has been following me. This guy has many problems. He is good-looking, a little domineering, and greedy for money and lust, but no one is perfect.
people·····"
Wu Huaiyu listened quietly.
If he could, he would be willing to step on the Qiu family so hard that the Qiu family would be unable to stand up, so that he would no longer be a threat to himself.
But now I hear that the emperor still misses the old friendship between brothers.
Today he actually wanted to make peace with him for the Qiu family.
"I was very clear about Qiu Xinggong's behavior in Lingzhou before. He was indeed too reckless, and I also punished him to the end. Now that he has been reflecting at home for more than half a year, he also regrets it very much."
"Tan Guogong also asked for forgiveness several times. General Qiu is so young and has made great contributions to the country. I can't bear to see it."
"Wuji also mentioned to me before that when you return to Beijing, he will make an appointment with you and the Qiu family for a meal, and some misunderstandings will be resolved."
Li Shimin wants to be the peacemaker himself.
He said that Qiu Xinggong had a very beautiful daughter, the half-sister of Changsun Wuji who had taken him as a concubine, and that he wanted to give her to Huaiyu as a concubine.
Although Qiu Xinggong was Qiu He's concubine, he was still Emperor Yuan Cong's confidant. Moreover, he had many children, and one of his daughters was married to Changsun Wuji as a concubine. Now the emperor wants to give Qiu Xinggong's daughter to Huaiyu as a concubine, which is equivalent to accepting the country.
The sister-in-law of the prime minister's uncle has become his concubine.
From this relationship alone, this marriage is worth getting married.
What's more, this is a marriage granted by the emperor himself.
Wu Huaiyu did not agree immediately.
This result surprised everyone in the palace.
Li Shimin was a little surprised.
The two people who recorded daily life, Chu Suiliang and Gao Jifu, were surprised. Even Yan Liben, who was listening carefully while painting, was also surprised.
Yan Liben was Qiu Shili's brother-in-law and a very close relative of the Qiu family.
Gao Jifu and Gao Shilian were brothers. Seven generations ago, Gao Zhan, the minister of Huangmen in the Northern Wei Dynasty, was a common ancestor. Gao Shilian took Qiu He's daughter as his concubine, so the Gaoqiu family was also a relative.
"Don't you want to?" Li Shimin smiled and asked.
On the way to Chang'an, Wu Huaiyu was still thinking about how to fight back against the Qiu family, but he didn't expect that they would become relatives, and even Qiu Xinggong would become his father-in-law to take advantage of him?
He felt a little nauseous when he thought of that guy eating roasted heart and liver in the street.
But even though the emperor asked this question, it was obvious that he didn't really want to ask for his opinion.
"This matter must be agreed by General Qiu and Madam Qiu. You can't force it. General Qiu has some opinions on me."
Li Shimin waved his hand, "That's nothing. I'm just asking you if you agree."
"The sage rewards you, but I dare not refuse."
The words were quite clear. I accepted it only after it was given by the emperor, but the answer made the emperor very satisfied. It is normal for ministers to have some conflicts, and it doesn't even matter if they make some mistakes. As long as they can be loyal to the emperor, everything else is secondary.
The emperor was so concerned because he was nostalgic for his old feelings. The Qiu family had made great contributions to the country, and Qiu Xinggong was even more loyal to him because he sacrificed his life to save him. Now he didn't want both the Qiu family and Wu Huaiyu to lose in a fight.
The emperor was very nostalgic and sympathetic to the heroes. If it were Liu Bang, he might have taken the opportunity to kick the Qiu family out.
Wu Huaiyu also felt the emperor's affection. An emperor who was less than thirty years old could still be so affectionate. Such an emperor could not be too bad.
