Lu Que once said that Ji Qi was suffering from a serious disease. If this is true...
He needs the border to be stable, otherwise if something goes wrong with his body and the court is shaken, he will be in danger. And if it comes to the worst, it will be difficult for the new emperor to succeed to the throne. The chaos of the feudal kings back then
Very likely to happen again.
As for the "vassal king" who has hundreds of thousands of white wolf troops, unless Li Mulin is alive, there may be no one in the world of Wuyang who can be his enemy.
…
Li Danqing frowned and followed Taiping, thinking carefully about what kind of trouble Ji Qi had encountered.
But he laid out various possibilities, but he never thought of a trouble that he would have to solve at the risk of creating another "white wolf co-leader" for himself.
Li Danqing couldn't figure it out for a while.
But he was not in a hurry.
In more than a year, some changes may have occurred within Wuyang City that he was not aware of, and he needed time to slowly understand them.
And until Li Sheyuan led the White Wolf Army to win the war against the Liao people, Li Danqing was safe.
"Sir, the Yanhuan Palace is just ahead." Taiping, who was walking in front, suddenly turned around and said to Li Danqing.
His words made Prince Li wake up from his thoughts. He raised his head and looked ahead, and a courtyard gate came into view.
At that moment, the expression on Prince Li's face became somewhat strange.
The courtyard door is old, and the vermilion paint on it has turned yellow. The white paint that was once painted on the courtyard wall has also faded in many places, making it look very mottled.
If it weren't for the three characters "Yanhuan Palace" written on the lintel, Li Danqing would be more willing to believe that this was the residence of a certain palace official.
"The third prince, the little princess, and the queen-in-waiting live here." Seeing Li Danqing stop in a daze, the little eunuch beside him quickly reminded him.
Li Danqing naturally knew that this was the destination of his trip. He was just secretly surprised that Ji Qi had never been a womanizer.
Now Ji Qi, who is in his forties, has only four concubines in total.
The prince's biological mother was Xiang Rong, who was also Queen Wuyang.
The biological mother of the second prince Ji Fei, the concubine Nangong Yun.
The third concubine died on her bed a few years ago and left no heirs. It had been so long that there were not many records about her in the palace, and even her name, Li Danqing, could not be remembered at the moment.
As for the fourth concubine, she is the concubine who gave birth to a prince and a princess to Ji Qi in Yanhuan Palace.
From the beginning to the end, Ji Qi made every effort and only married four concubines, and one of them died.
For an emperor, this can definitely be called "not close to women".
Perhaps there will be friction between the empress and concubine Nangong Yun because of the crown prince's dethronement and the clan forces behind both parties, but this concubine was born as a commoner and the prince is still young, and there is no power behind her.
Word.
Logically speaking, she should not be suppressed by all parties in the harem.
Wu Yangchao was not so poor that he needed to live in such a shabby place for the prince and princess, right?
Li Danqing felt strange, but he didn't ask any more questions and nodded towards the little eunuch.
The little eunuch didn't think too much. Seeing that Li Danqing had come to his senses, he quickly walked to the gate of Yanhuan Palace to pass the message.
But the little eunuch knocked on the red-yellow palace door for a long time, but there was no response from the door.
"Did the Queen Mother take the prince and princess out?" The little eunuch looked at Li Danqing and said with some embarrassment.
He had just entered the palace, didn't know anyone, and didn't have much information in the palace.
Otherwise, if it were other palace people, they should have known the news early in the morning, and Li Danqing wouldn't have to make the trip in vain.
Li Danqing saw what he was thinking, smiled and waved his hand, saying: "No problem..."
But as soon as these words were spoken, there was a sparse sound of footsteps coming from the palace gate, accompanied by an old voice: "Here we come..."
At this moment, the palace door made a low muffled sound and was opened from the inside.
Then an old face slowly popped up.
It was a woman, over sixty years old. With the sound of washing, her palace clothes turned white, her eyes were cloudy, and she asked in a dull voice: "Are the two father-in-laws here to deliver fruits to the house?"
"What are you talking about!"
The little eunuch's expression changed when he heard this, and he quickly raised his voice and shouted.
"This is the newly promoted young master! Here to give lectures to the prince and princess!"
After hearing this, the woman's cloudy eyes opened for a moment, and then she saw clearly that Li Danqing's clothes were not the attire of a palace person at all.
She was so frightened that she knelt down with a plop and said tremblingly: "This old woman has no eyesight... Please forgive me!"
It is extremely rude to call a court official as father-in-law. If Li Danqing is willing to let someone slap her twenty-four times, it is something that no one can find fault with. No wonder this
The woman felt as if she were facing a powerful enemy for a moment.
Seeing this, the little eunuch quickly turned his head to look at Li Danqing and said cautiously: "My lord, she has blind eyes and cannot see Mount Tai, so why don't we see her in the same way?"
Li Danqing smiled bitterly and nodded. Of course he didn't care about this matter, but he was worried about how he could be recognized as a eunuch by being so heroic and extraordinary.
Seeing this, the old woman felt as if she had been granted amnesty, and hurriedly got up. After a moment of gratitude, she turned around and invited Li Danqing into the palace. At this time, the young eunuch Taiping also resigned.
The rules in the palace are complicated, and there are rules for who can go where.
Since the young eunuch has no royal authority, he cannot enter the palace.
However, this guy obviously had a great affection for Li Danqing. When he left, he didn't forget to ask about Li Danqing's residence, saying that he would be free next month and would look for Li Danqing in his mansion.
Li Danqing naturally agreed happily. After hearing this, Taiping left with satisfaction.
…
After entering Yanhuan Palace, the expression on Li Danqing's face became increasingly weird.
If the outer walls and gate of Yanhuan Palace look a bit old, then the scene inside the palace can really be called dilapidated.
The area occupied by Yanhuan Palace is quite large. Li Danqing secretly estimated that, not to mention the large area, there are still seven or eight acres of land.
But there is only one house in the courtyard with the same mottled red paint on the wall, and a large area of land in front of the door. There is no decoration like rockery or pavilion, there is only a large vegetable field, where Li Danqing can't name it at the moment.
Vegetables and fruits.
This certainly doesn't look like the residence of a prince or princess, but more like a farmhouse.
A woman in linen clothes bowed her back and pulled a sickle, clearing weeds in the field. Not far away, a eunuch in a black gown was standing aside with a gloomy look. Seeing Li Danqing's arrival, the eunuch raised his hand
He glanced briefly, then withdrew his gaze, and continued to look ahead with eyes, nose, nose and heart.
The old woman who was leading the way for Li Danqing said to the woman at that time: "Your Majesty, the adults in the palace are here!"
The woman in the field was obviously a little surprised by this. She stood up, wiped the sweat from her forehead with her hand, and looked at Li Danqing.
The woman seemed a little embarrassed. She had nowhere to place her hand holding the sickle. Her eyes were a little wary and a little confused, and she asked: "Sir...what's the matter?"
Li Danqing couldn't help but feel dazed for a moment.
The woman in front of her was wearing washed white linen clothes and a cap on her head. The hair on her forehead was a bit messy. It was unclear whether it had not been combed or was messed up during the work just now.
She has a pretty face and looks to be in her late twenties at most, but there are already a few faint fishtails growing out of the corners of her eyes.
No matter how she looked, she looked like a pretty peasant woman, but she couldn't be associated with an imperial concubine.
It took Li Danqing a while to accept this fact, but he secretly cursed in his heart: This Ji Qi is too much of a thing.
How could such a good concubine have the heart to let them live in such a place?
What's more, he has his own flesh and blood living here. Tiger poison doesn't even eat its children, but Ji Qi is quite cruel.
If it weren't for the clear record in "Records of the Emperor's Daily Life" that Ji Qi was drunk and having sex, and was blessed with this concubine.
Li Danqing even wondered whether the female overlord had forced herself on Ji Qi and made Ji Qi so difficult for the mother and son.
Li Danqing thought this, and then glanced sideways at the eunuch standing in front of the house.
Logically speaking, he is the slave and the woman is the master.
But the clothes the eunuch was wearing seemed to be of great value, and he could watch the woman working in the fields, but he stood aside with a leisurely expression, watching indifferently.
Li Danqing felt a little strange in his heart, and seemed to have thought of something.
However, he did not criticize her. Instead, he bowed respectfully to the woman and said, "I am Li Danqing."
"According to His Majesty's order, I am here to give lectures to the prince and princess."
The woman was also a little dazed, looking at Li Danqing uneasily, vaguely smelling from Li Danqing's brocade clothes that the other party had a high status.
She seemed to have no experience in contact with officials of this level. She was stunned for a while before she came back to her senses.
"Then I'll call Yu Zhi and Yao'er to come out."
She looked clumsy and eager, as if she was afraid of neglecting Li Danqing, walking quickly through the fields towards the door not far away.
But I was too eager to lay down the ground. Halfway through, my feet slipped and I stumbled and was about to fall down...
When Li Danqing saw this, he hurried forward out of instinct and reached out to hold the woman's waist.
The woman was shocked, blinked her eyes, and looked at Li Danqing. After a while, she came back to her senses. Her cheeks were slightly red, obviously she was not used to such contact.
She quickly stepped away and whispered: "Thank you, sir."
Li Danqing smiled and shook his head, about to say something.
"Be bold!"
But before the words came out of his mouth, the eunuch dressed in black shouted loudly in his thin duck voice.
"As an imperial concubine, your Majesty should show off your favors, keep yourself clean, and share your Majesty's worries!"
"But they don't know how to behave, and they are fighting with foreign ministers!"
"If this spreads out, wouldn't it bring shame to His Majesty!"