In front of the desk in the side hall, Guo Ziyi was eating biscuits stuffed with meat and flipping through books.
An old slave from the Guo family, named Guo Ji, knocked on the door. After getting the answer, he walked in and said, "Master, all the luggage has been packed."
Guo Ziyi waved her hand to indicate that she understood.
Guo Ji had followed Guo Ziyi for decades. After hesitating for a moment, he said softly: "It's not easy for my family to get to where they are today. If we just leave like this, it will be really..."
Guo Ziyi put down the book, looked at Guo Ji, sighed and said: "I have been in official career until now, when the Tang Dynasty was in decline. I want to spread my righteousness to the world, but I am stuck in the countercurrent and cannot extricate myself. The only way to get out is to retreat bravely from the rapid current.
You can keep your reputation."
When Guo Ji heard this, he lowered his head and said nothing, and retreated outside the door.
Guo Ziyi shook her head, took a bite of Hu Pancake, and was just about to pick up the book and continue reading. The boy from the Guo family's porter suddenly rushed into the corridor and shouted into the room in panic: "Master, the Prime Minister is here!"
When Guo Ziyi heard this, his whole body was shocked.
Throwing the Hu cake on the table, Guo Ziyi got up and stumbled to the corridor, asking the boy urgently: "Where is the Prime Minister?"
Boy: "The horse team has arrived at the square gate and is heading here."
Guo Ziyi took a breath of cold air, lifted up her robe and ran towards the bedroom, shouting as she ran: "Make a fire! Light up the medicine stove!"
Rushing into the bedroom as quickly as possible, before Guo Ziyi could lie down, she heard the rapid sound of horse hooves coming from the door, followed by the singing of the servants.
Guo Ziyi didn't wait to think about it, and quickly jumped into the bed, rubbed her face vigorously, and pretended to be weak.
When the bedroom door opened, Zhou Jun entered the room.
When Guo Ziyi saw him, she kept struggling on the bed, trying hard to get down to the ground and salute.
Smelling the scent of the concoction that filled the room, Zhou Jun frowned, walked to the bed, looked at Guo Ziyi and said, "Lie well and don't move."
After Guo Ziyi thanked her, she lay down again.
Zhou Jun looked Guo Ziyi up and down and said, "I heard that General Guo is suffering from a serious illness and cannot go to court?"
Guo Ziyi said "weakly": "I used to be in good health, but for some reason, I encountered the wind and cold a few days ago and I can no longer be as good as before."
Zhou Jun nodded and suddenly asked: "Can General Guo still eat?"
Guo Ziyi was a little surprised by this question, but she still shook her head and replied: "Occasionally I can have some porridge and soup."
Zhou Jun took off some Hu cake residue from Guo Ziyi's chest and asked, "General Guo just ate Hu cake?"
Guo Ziyi was stunned and said with some embarrassment: "Maybe I ate some this morning."
In front of Guo Ziyi, Zhou Jun pinched the dregs with his hands and said, "It's crispy but not greasy, and slightly oily. General Guo has a pretty good appetite."
Guo Ziqi's expression was even more embarrassing: "In order to recover as soon as possible, I can only eat some."
Zhou Jun stopped talking and suddenly reached out and pulled away the quilt.
I saw that Guo Ziyi was still wearing regular clothes, and the cloth shoes on her feet had not yet been taken off.
Guo Ziyi, who was exposed as pretending to be ill, looked extremely embarrassed and didn't know what to do for a moment.
Zhou Jun did not say any words to blame or ridicule, but just said: "After you have packed up, come to the side hall to see me."
Half a quarter of an hour later, Guo Ziyi, who looked uneasy, was sitting in the lower seat of the side hall and secretly glanced at Zhou Jun.
Zhou Jun picked up the book on the desk, read a few pages, then turned back to the cover and asked, "Is General Guo reading "The Biography of Huo Guang"?"
Guo Ziyi lowered his head and responded.
Zhou Jun: "How does the general evaluate Huo Guang?"
Guo Ziyi: "I have little talent and little knowledge..."
Zhou Jun: "There are no other people here, you can speak freely."
Guo Ziyi hesitated for a moment and then said cautiously: "Huo Guang was a powerful official in the Western Han Dynasty and the first of the eleven heroes of Qilin Pavilion. He went through three dynasties including Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, and reached the rank of Great Sima General. Huo Guangkuang's country, Anshe Ji, and Zhongxing Han
However, he presided over the dethronement of Changyi King Liu He, colluded with the imperial doctor to poison Queen Xu, and married his daughter to Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty as his queen. However, he was a man who sought power for personal gain..."
Guo Ziyi's voice became lower and lower.
Zhou Jun looked at Guo Ziyi: "In your opinion, how should Huo Guang be judged?"
Guo Ziyi: "Huo Guang's civil and military strategy was simple, and he helped the Han Dynasty achieve peace. This is a great sage. However, if Guang is good at abolishing the establishment, the deceased will be treated with courtesy... This is unethical."
Guo Ziyi almost exhausted all his strength to finish this sentence.
After Zhou Jun heard this, he asked Guo Ziyi: "General Guo pretended to be ill because he wanted to resign from his official position to protect his reputation?"
Guo Ziyi knew that it was useless to cover up what he said, so he left the table and knelt in front of Zhou Jun and said: "The prime minister is a talented man in military affairs. Ziyi has been an official for decades. Looking at the Tang Dynasty, no one can compare with him."
You compare. But monarchs and ministers follow the rules of etiquette. This is the order of heaven and earth. Once it goes against it, the Tao will be overturned and the honor and integrity will no longer exist."
Zhou Jun stared at Guo Ziyi who was kneeling in front of him, and said nothing for a long time.
The latter's forehead was on the ground, and there were beads of sweat on the top of his head, slowly dripping down.
Just when Guo Ziyi felt like she was out of breath, Zhou Jun finally spoke.
"In your opinion, is the relationship between the king and his ministers more important, or is the life and death of the people more important?"
Guo Ziyi heard Zhou Jun's question and froze on the spot. After thinking for a while, she still couldn't answer.
Zhou Jun said coldly: "At the turn of Kaiyuan Tianbao, the Tang Dynasty prospered, and all nations came to the dynasty. Why did it decline like this in just ten years? Some people say that it was natural disasters that caused floods and droughts in Guanzhong, Henan, Hebei and other places.
The calamity lasted for several years; some people say that Anlu Mountain was ambitious and wanted the throne, so he raised rebellion and caused great harm to the world."
"Actually, you and I both know that the answer is far from that simple. The seeds of today's chaos in the Tang Dynasty were planted decades or even centuries ago. Land annexation, clans fighting against each other, vassal towns seeking power, and the Holy Lord refusing to rule
, Traitors are in power... All of these are man-made disasters, and blaming the blame on heaven and earth, on the thieves, is just to whitewash the court and prevent the public from losing face! "
Guo Ziyi was dripping with cold sweat.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Zhou Jun: "Above the court, those loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty kept shouting that they were loyal to the emperor, patriotic, and ethical."
"Guo Ziyi, let me ask you, where were these loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty when the aristocratic families annexed the people's land, leaving the refugees homeless and freezing to death in the market?"
"At the time when there were floods and droughts, the noble clans sold a bushel of rice for 800 yuan, and the people scattered all their wealth and sold their sons and daughters just for a bite of food. Where were those loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty?"
"When famine broke out, people starved to death for thousands of miles. After digging out tree bark and grass roots, people had to exchange their children for food and dig graves and corpses. Where were those loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty?"
"When the war spread, and all the men in the common people's families died on the battlefield because of the imperial conscription, and finally even those white-haired men who were waiting for their sons were forcibly dragged onto the battlefield to serve as soldiers, those loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty again
where?!"
Zhou Jun suddenly stood up, threw the "Huo Guang Biography" on the desk in front of Guo Ziyi, and said angrily: "Those so-called loyal ministers turn a blind eye to the suffering of the people! Because their loyalty is only to the king, but never to the king.
Give a little bit of charity to the people of the world!"
Looking at the book thrown in front of her eyes and listening to the words in her ears, Guo Ziyi was shocked and her thoughts were numb.
Zhou Jun: "Guo Ziyi, I once heard a famous saying. When a person walks uphill, he will always look down at his feet, always checking the reality of the place where he steps; but once he goes downhill, he often only looks farsighted, but does not
Forgot to pay attention to your feet.”
"You have been in a high position for a long time, and you may have forgotten one thing. The foundation of the Tang Dynasty that supports its continuation is not the way of monarchs and ministers in your mouth, but the thousands and thousands of unknown people in the world.
People. When you start to ignore the people in your heart, you might as well think about it, are you already on a downhill road?"
Zhou Jun stood up and walked towards the door of the side hall.
When he arrived at the door, Zhou Jun said in a deep voice: "Guo Ziyi, I'll give you two choices."
"One, I will give you a sinecure, and give you a generous salary, so that you can return to your hometown. You can take your belongings and live your life in your ancestral home honestly, and spend the rest of your life. The power of the world will be with you.
There is no connection at all."
"Second, take your moral integrity and go to Anxi to replace Feng Changqing's position as deputy envoy of Anxi. Use your eyes to look carefully, use your ears to listen carefully, and see clearly this