"Zhaoxia, I'm here." A weak but still calm voice came from inside.
The next moment, I saw a nanny walking out quickly protecting the queen.
"Your Majesty! Your face!" Zhaoxia looked up in surprise, only to see blood stains on the Queen's face. When she realized what she was doing, she had already pounced on her.
"The injury is not serious, there is no need to panic, get out first!" The queen held her hand with one hand, and at this critical moment, she was calmer than anyone else.
The circles in Zhaoxia's eyes were red, and the empress described herself as embarrassed and suffering!
However, it was not the time for inspection, and eunuchs and maidens were escaping from various places one after another, or rushing in to save people. Everyone gathered together and took shelter in the open space outside the palace for the time being.
The queen was surrounded in the middle, but at her request, everyone spread out slightly and avoided places with buildings.
"Your Majesty, let me take a look at your wound." She finally breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhaoxia remembered the matter again.
"No need!" The Queen took it upon herself to take out a handkerchief from her sleeve and gently wiped away the frightening blood stains on her face. Zhaoxia checked it carefully and breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, it's just a scratch on the skin, there will be no trace of it.
trace."
She felt relieved when she discovered that it was just a smear on her forehead. It looked like there was blood, but in fact it was just a little bit of skin.
According to the Queen's treatment, even if the skin is scratched, the imperial doctor should be called immediately to give medicine, but under the current circumstances, the Queen naturally does not allow it.
"Ah, help, help!"
"Help!"
"ah!"
Just when the Queen signaled for people to help up the injured in front of the palace, there was another commotion, and screams came from a distance, making the faces of those who had just escaped death turn pale.
"What on earth happened, go and have a look." The queen ordered. A young eunuch did not dare to disobey the order and went directly to inquire. It didn't take long for the young eunuch to come back in a hurry.
"Mother, something happened in the Royal Beast Garden. Just now, the dragon moved and frightened the elephants. Three elephants ran out of the elephant room, trampling and charging everywhere!" The little eunuch's face was ugly, and he couldn't stop rubbing his face when he answered.
Sweat, obviously he was very frightened.
"Not only did people die when they were trampled on, but many palace walls, flowers and trees were also destroyed."
It turns out that there have always been animals in the palace, and the elephants were part of the guard of honor prepared for the emperor to leave the palace. Because of the loud noise and the shaking of the earth, animals that are more sensitive than humans were naturally frightened. Because of the fright, they left the elephant room.
The three elephants that escaped from Zhongben went completely crazy.
Elephants are animals that can be used as special weapons in wartime. The palace is not a battlefield and the place is small. Anyone who encounters an elephant can hardly escape.
As soon as the three elephants escaped, they trampled the whole palace and killed many people.
"I heard that one of them has been killed, but there are still two others running around. Fortunately, it is still far away from Yong'an Palace, so it should be impossible to escape." The little eunuch wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said happily.
This is indeed something to be thankful for. Although this vision brought a great disaster and many people died in the palace, only some craftsmen died in Yong'an Palace. Not many eunuchs and maids died. I heard that only a few people died sporadically elsewhere.
.
After hearing this, the queen fell silent and looked somewhere.
The female officer looked in the direction and found that the direction the queen was looking was exactly where the emperor was. The female officer thought she understood the queen's thoughts and hurriedly said: "Queen, are you worried about the emperor? The emperor is the emperor, with the body of a real dragon, and he has
God bless you and everything will be fine."
Others may believe this. The queen was silent again, thoughtfully, and nodded for a moment: "You are right, but I really can't feel at ease. Let's go and have a look together."
Then he told the eunuch and the maid: "Don't enter the palace yet. Help the injured people outside to an open place and wait for the imperial doctor to send someone to deliver medicine for treatment."
"Yes, Queen." Everyone responded.
The Queen hurried forward with only one eunuch and a personal female officer.
What she saw along the way made the queen's expression even more silent.
When a eunuch saw her like this, he couldn't help but sigh: "Your Majesty is worried about the emperor's safety. The emperor is really loving!"
Time went back to the moment before the loud noise occurred, and the Zhiping Hall was also peaceful.
"There is another commotion in the southwest, and it is different from last time." The speaker was Luo Pei, who bowed and said calmly: "Last time in the southwest, there was a riot caused by thieves, so everyone responded to the call, and this time the commotion
, but Governor Chu Sui is eager for success."
"In the mainland, the government has the final say, and the people are all enlightened by the emperor's grace. But in the southwest, it is the chieftains who own the villages. These villages are hidden in the mountains. Some villages can't even be climbed by horses. They are barbaric and uncivilized.
I don’t understand, I only know the chieftain but not the court.”
"Governor Chu Sui wants to abolish the chieftains and replace them with officials, but no one will accept it. Once the chieftains initiate rebellion, all the people in the mountains will rebel, and the chaos in the southwest will happen again."
"Besides, when it comes to the officials appointed by the imperial court, the Southwest Provincial Government is only responsible for this. There are many miasma snakes and insects in the counties below, and foreign officials are not used to it. Many people die from epidemic diseases. The imperial court should be more considerate of these troubles."
The emperor frowned and just pondered, and after a long while he said: "The chieftains are very exploited, the government taxes are very light, and the mountain people should support them, but why has it become like this - what can you do?"
Luo Pei pondered for a moment and said: "As a strategy for peace, I believe that the first priority is to accumulate Han resources. Many places in the southwest are still slash-and-burn farming. Although there are benefits of tea and salt, we cannot rely on this. Instead, we must investigate the arable land.
, focus on reclamation.”
"On the one hand, we teach the mountain people to go down to the mountains to farm, cultivate mulberry trees, study and respect the king. They have been the subjects of the imperial court for several generations. This is called assimilation."
"On the other hand, the Han people may be moved to cultivate the land. In this way, if the two pipelines are connected, the larger the population, the greater the population will be, and the advantage will be formed over the village. At that time, the locals will have the power to suppress those who rebel. If they do not resist, the mountain village will be withered away -
—Whether the copycat rebels or not, it will not shake the overall situation. It can be said that it will happen naturally."
"If we force ourselves to do it now, whether we raise troops to mobilize the masses or force officials to rebel, it will be counterproductive."
After hearing this, the emperor thought for a while, stood up and walked around casually, and suddenly smiled: "Of course your plan is a good one, but it's a pity..."
I don't know what the emperor was feeling sorry for. He looked a little melancholy. Luo Pei bowed and said nothing.
The emperor stared at it for a long time and said, "Please show me the details of today's conversation and your thoughts, then step back!"
Luo Pei withdrew in response and went to the eunuchs in the outer hall. Eunuch Zhao hurried in and offered a bowl of bird's nests with his own hands.
The emperor didn't use his own hands. He asked Eunuch Zhao to place the bird's nest in front of him and took a bite directly with a spoon.
I nodded and realized that the bird's nest this time tasted pretty good. It was not like the last batch that was improved. Even though it was considered high-quality, it was still a bit inferior.
After eating less than half of the bowl slowly, the emperor placed the small bowl containing the bird's nest on the table and said with satisfaction: "The quality is okay this time. You old slave did a good job."
He was lost in thought again: "Luo Pei and I are estranged."
Eunuch Zhao bent down and was about to speak. He was shocked when he heard these words, but he heard the emperor say calmly: "Luo Pei is still neat in doing things, and his advice is also meaningful, so I can't find fault, but I understand in my heart...
…”
Just then, there was a "boom", the whole hall shook, and a tile fell down.