After the troubled five years of Zhongping, the situation of the Han Dynasty in the sixth year of Zhongping suddenly took on a new look. The defeat of Liu Bei, the general who protected the Xiongnu Zhonglang, at Sangqian seemed to be a turning point in fate. After this battle, the victory reports from various places in Kyushu were as follows.
Flying to Luoyang like snowflakes:
In January, the Liangzhou rebels failed to besiege Chencang and were preparing to retreat. In February, left general Huangfu Song pursued the Liangzhou rebels and won a great victory, beheading more than 10,000 people. The Liangzhou rebels retreated to Gaoping and the court
Yongdi was restored; in March, Youzhou Shepherd Liu Yu appeased Xianbei Wuhuan with his kindness and paid a lot of money to buy Zhang Chun's head. Zhang Chun was killed by his retainer Wang Zheng, and the Youzhou rebels were destroyed.
But this did not help the emperor's condition. On the fifth day of April, just as Liu Bei was raising troops to Jinyang and heading west to fight the rebellion, the emperor's cold was getting worse and worse, and he was in a coma in the Jiade Palace all day long. The bed-warming maids from western Liaoning couldn't help but complain to the imperial doctor.
They complained that the emperor's hands and feet were cold, colder than ice floes in Liaoze. But the imperial doctors were helpless and could only prescribe some tonics every day, hoping to keep the emperor alive.
Jian Shuo stood in front of the emperor's bed all day long, helping the emperor change clothes and clean his body. He saw that the emperor was losing weight day by day. On the fourth day of the lunar month, the emperor could still sit up and chat and laugh with Jian Shuo for two hours. On the tenth day of the lunar month, the emperor
I could only wake up for two moments, stare at Jian Shuo for a moment, and even lose the strength to speak.
At noon on the 10th day of April, Empress Dowager Dong and her prince Liu Xie came to visit. She sat sideways on the bed, holding the emperor's palm with one hand and touching the emperor's protruding cheekbones with the other. She couldn't help crying secretly, and complained to Jian Shuo:
"How could your Majesty become like this!" Jian Shuo did not dare to answer, but Liu Xie pulled him away and asked him in a low voice: "Have you used your father's medicine?" Jian Shuo replied that he had.
It takes two seconds to fry.
The prince walked out of the palace. When Jian Shuo saw him again two moments later, the nine-year-old prince wrapped his hands in wet cloth, carried a foot-high medicine jar and stepped into the palace. Zhao Zhongzhang asked two old men.
The attendant followed behind him, with a hurried look on his face. His arms were like a few dead branches on the edge of the nest in front of him, and he kept saying: "The medicine jar is heavy, so I'd better let the old slave come. The old slave comes."
Liu Xie walked to the bed, placed the medicine jar in front of the bed table, poured the medicine juice into a lacquer bowl with a large spoon, and asked Jian Shuo, "Did the imperial doctor tell me how much medicine to drink?" Jian Shuo replied, "Once.
Just drink half a bowl of medicine." After Liu Xie learned about it, he drank the medicine to test the temperature, and then gave the medicine to the emperor in the arms of Empress Dowager Dong. When the attendants saw tears in the prince's eyes, they all thought of the emperor's care for them.
I feel sad.
After sitting in the palace for half an hour, the Queen Mother left a packet of refreshing sachets for Jian Shuo and left with Liu Xie. But as luck would have it, when the Queen Mother came out of the palace, she bumped into the Queen's team. The Queen was dressed in red and yellow.
The phoenix-patterned skirt with a collar and curved train, the hair knot with gold ginseng bun, the face with yellow appliqués, and the lips with wax grease, look gorgeous and noble.
The queen held the prince Liu Bian by one hand, followed by seven or eight regular attendants and a dozen palace maids. As soon as the two met, their faces were frosty. The queen mother looked at the queen, while the queen turned aside her delicate face with a look of surprise. Fortunately, the two noblemen abided by the courtesy and did not speculate or behave like shrews. After a moment of stalemate, the two went their separate ways. They did not notice that when the two princes met, they had quietly made an appointment with their eyes and gestures:
Let’s go boating in Zhuolong Garden the next day.
When the queen and her entourage entered the Jiade Hall, Jian Shuo hurriedly greeted the queen. The queen glanced at Jian Shuo sideways and said nothing to him. She led the prince into the side hall, sat down on the chair in the hall, and let all the attendants come in.
To answer, she first asked Zhang Rang with her hands on her hips: "Has His Majesty's condition improved?"
The leader of the Changshi, who was called "Changshi Zhang is my father" by the emperor, lowered his head and wept repeatedly: "Mr.
He shed tears on his sleeves and choked on his words, which made the attendants around him think about his future and couldn't help but shed tears.
The queen felt upset for a while and slapped the case repeatedly. All the attendants fell silent. Only the prince in her arms cried out in pain when the queen held her. She let go of her hand in dissatisfaction, patted Liu Bian's back, and then looked down the steps.
The old eunuchs, with their low eyebrows and gentle looks, made the queen frown. But when she saw Jian Shuo's burly figure, she couldn't help but twist her voice and said, "Has your Majesty had any intention to establish a crown prince in recent days?"
Jian Shuo lowered his head and said, "Your Highness should know that your Majesty's hands and feet have been stiff these past few days, and he cannot speak. He has not given any orders."
The queen breathed a sigh of relief and said with a forced expression of sadness: "If your majesty impeaches the emperor, what will the orphans and widowers do?" Then she hid her face and pulled Liu Bian out of the hall in a hurry. The other Chang servants followed her up like the wind, only Jian
Shuo stood expressionless, taking a deep breath, his burly figure hunched in front of the desk, packing the medicine utensils between the desk and desk, and the medicine jars were still warm.
At night, Jian Shuo drank the concoction for the emperor and put on a new cold quilt for the emperor. The material of the cold quilt was a silk quilt made of fine cotton from Nanyang, and the embroidery was a two-sided dragon and phoenix dancing figure embroidered by a famous Wuyin artist.
The maids took off all their clothes and got into quilts. One woman lay on her side and put the emperor's feet on her lower abdomen. The two women lay on their sides on the couch, hugging the emperor's arms, using their body temperature to warm the emperor in the early summer. When Jian Shuo saw that the arrangement was completed, he put on his clothes.
I put on a robe, lay on His Highness's desk, and soon fell asleep.
At Yin time, Jian Shuo heard someone calling him. He was startled, fell off the table, and woke up from his dream. Jian Shuo managed to get up, picked up the scattered robe on the ground, and looked around blankly.
I saw the emperor on the bed with his mouth slightly open and his chin slightly shaking towards him.
Jian Changshi walked quickly to the couch and listened carefully to the emperor. It took a long time before he heard the word "water". Jian Shuo hurriedly took the honey water from the table, poured it into the jade cup for the emperor, and then handed it to the emperor's mouth.
, the emperor drank it all in one gulp, Jian Shuo was very happy, and wanted to pour another glass for the emperor, but the emperor shook his head and refused, and said weakly and clearly: "No, let them all leave."
After a slight hesitation, Jian Shuo woke up the three palace maids, asked them to pick up their clothes and hurried to the side hall, and asked the guards at the entrance to close the doors before returning to the emperor. The emperor looked at him sideways, his face pale, but his eyes were blank.
With a bright and clear voice, he said to him in a calm tone that showed insight into the world: "Jian Shuo, I'm going to die!"
Just as Jian Shuo was about to speak, he was interrupted by the emperor again and said: "These days, I have been having nightmares. I dreamed about the late emperor, Song Qi, and Duan Jiong. There were fierce ghosts everywhere, and they all wanted my life."
Damn it! But I finally dreamed of you. You were riding a Wumingji and led the Eighth School of Xiyuan to rescue me! Then I woke up."
Jian Shuo burst into tears and said with a smile: "In this case, Your Majesty should live a long life. This old slave must die to protect His Majesty's peace."
The emperor shook his head and said: "Jian Shuo, death is death. A god like Gaozu also died on the bed. I know I am going to die, and you can't stop me." He tremblingly stretched out his left hand from the cold quilt.
, Jian Shuo hurriedly held it with both hands, and the emperor's chill made his whole body feel awe-inspiring.
But he still performed his duties and reported to the emperor the changes in the palace in the past few days, the words and deeds of the queen mother and queen, and the performance of the two princes.
The emperor was obviously thinking about other things and did not listen to his words. After Jian Shuo finished speaking, the emperor began to speak. The content of his words was unexpected: he said that he had thought that in a few years all the chaos would be settled, so he would disband the army and reduce taxes.
, let the people live a good life... When Liu Xie was a little older, he handed over state affairs to his children, and returned to his hometown in Hejian, where he and his attendants took Huang Qingcang and went boating...
"The time has come, the time has come." The emperor ended the topic with this chanting tone, and said to Jian Shuo: "I left this mess, Jian Shuo, don't blame me. Being an emperor is a hard job, only
If Liu Xie can take it on, you should do your best to help him. Liu Bian is not a pillar and cannot bear this hardship."
This was the last edict. Jian Shuo kowtowed in tears, and the emperor's voice also became weaker. He whispered: "If you have no help in the court, you can help me with Gaixun, Liu Yu, Dong Chong..." He said no at the end.
When he spoke, he could only use his fingers to scribble the names of Liu Bei, Chen Chong and Huangfu Song in Jian Shuo's hand.
Jian Shuo lowered his head to feel it. After a while, he found that his fingertips had lost strength. He looked up and saw that the emperor's eyes were slightly open, his eyes were slack, and he was exhausted.
At this time, the sky was still dark, and a breeze blew through the palace, blowing out several candles in front of the couch. Jian Shuo stood up, tucked the emperor's quilt, then lit the extinguished candles, and touched the things on the table that were used by the emperor.
So sad.
After he calmed down, Jian Shuo opened the palace door, called his nephew Jian Long who was guarding the door, and asked him to deliver a message to the general He Jin, saying that the emperor was in charge of the emperor and had a legacy to be passed down.
After delivering the message, he left Jiade Hall and went to Baihu Gate alone, contacting Dong Chong, the hussar general who was on duty here at night. Dong Chong was over forty, and his energy was not as good as before. When he was ugly, he became dizzy.
When he was resting in the small room built inside, Jian Shuo woke him up and told Dong Chong everything about the emperor's imperial duties.
When Dong Zhong learned that the emperor had passed away, he couldn't help being frightened. He asked Jian Shuo, "What do you want Duke Jian to do?" Jian Shuo knocked on the door of the room and explained to Dong Zhong: "Your Majesty is interested in Marquis Dong, so I ordered the old man to help protect him.
The great treasure of his ascension to the throne is that He Jin is in the position of a general, commanding the army of the country, and has Yuan Wei, Lu Zhi, and Xu Xiangxiang to help him. If he wants to force Shihou to be the emperor, does Mr. Dong have a good plan?"
These words were like the sound of thunder. Dong Chong was panicked when he heard this. He stood up, took Jian Shuo's hands and knelt down again, saying to him repeatedly: "What good plan can I have? Mr. Jian is always very wise, so he came here to find me.
There must be some good advice to teach me!"
Seeing Dong Zhong lose his composure, Jian Shuo was greatly disappointed, but he still pulled him up and said to him: "General, why do you do this? The general is the nephew of the Queen Mother and is in charge of four thousand guards in the palace and outside the province. Jian Shuo is trusted by the emperor.
The general manager can order two thousand eunuchs in the province, and can control 16,000 people in the eight schools of Xiyuan. As long as the general and the master are of the same mind, the palace and the province will be under your control.
Shuo has already given orders to He Jin, pretending to have a posthumous edict to announce it. As soon as He comes in here, the general will dispatch his confidants to set up an ambush in front of the White Tiger Gate. When the butcher He Jin comes to the palace, the general will shoot him with arrows.
!
Once the success is achieved and the party is leaderless, the general can take charge of the overall situation. At that time, the general can first appease the princes with the Queen Mother's will, and then use the Queen Mother's relatives to rule the government. In name and reality, how can big things not be accomplished?"
After hearing the end, Dong Chong nodded repeatedly, smiled happily, and said to Jian Shuo: "If this can be done, then all the great achievements belong to Jian Gong!"
Jian Shuo let go of his hand and thought of what Chen Chong said two months ago, feeling sad in his heart.