snowstorm

In the winter of the [-]th year of Dasheng Huangping, Jinling City experienced a rare heavy snowfall in a century.

The sky is cloudy and the ground is dark, and all eyes are white.

The imperial study room was covered with earth dragons, and it was very warm. An exquisite incense burner was placed in a corner of the hall, and ambergris was burned.The warm mist is curling up, and the wintersweet newly replaced by the maids are particularly fresh and beautiful. The fragrance of the plum blossoms melts in the ambergris mist, which is extraordinarily clear and sweet.

Snow fell outside the hall, and the hall was silent.

Xie Qiao held a hand stove wrapped in Sichuan brocade in his left hand, leaned on his right hand propped on the table, and fell asleep drowsily. On the table in front of him was a military newspaper that had been approved by a Chinese ink pen.The battle on the front line is tense, and military reports are coming in frequently. He has stayed up for several nights, his eyes are covered with bruises, and now he can't hold it anymore.

The ministers who discussed the matter had just left, and the chief eunuch in charge had just gone out. The eunuchs and maids did not dare to wake him up, so they had to walk lightly and carefully put a cashmere blanket on him to prevent the emperor from catching a cold.

"Your Majesty..."

The chief eunuch Xu Lai entered the hall, and quickly fell silent when he saw this situation.He waved his hand, and the young eunuchs following behind filed in, put the food on the small table lightly, and then bowed their bodies and quietly exited the hall.

Xu took a look at the thin paper envelope in his hand, and there was a chicken feather on the envelope, which represented an emergency.This letter comes from Beiguan, the military situation in Beiguan is urgent, and now the emperor has to read it in person.Although he felt sorry for the young emperor who had suffered a lot these days, he still stepped forward and touched the emperor's shoulder lightly.

"Your Majesty? Your Majesty?"

Xie Qiao suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of handsome and deep pupils.

"Your Majesty," Xu Lai respectfully presented the letter with both hands: "There is another letter from Beiguan. I asked the imperial dining room to bring some food. You haven't used your lunch yet. What do you want to use first? "

Xie Qiao didn't answer, just squeezed the space between her brows, and took the letter from Xu Lai.

There were two letters in an envelope, Xie Qiao had read one, and the obvious joy was on the brows, Xu Lai looked at it from the side, guessing that it was a great victory in Beiguan, his eyes could not help but be filled with joy, thinking about waiting How can I wish Your Majesty happy.

At this time, Xu Lai saw Xie Qiao's face suddenly turned cold after reading another page of the letter, as if the rare joy on the emperor's face just now was an illusion.

Xie Qiao held a thin piece of paper in his hand, and his hands with strong bones couldn't help trembling slightly.His pupils were constricted, his eyes were black and blue, his eyes were red, and his face was full of horror and disbelief, as if the letter was a ghost who came to claim his life.

He stood up abruptly and slammed the things off the table.Lights, tea cups and memorials crackled all over the floor.Xu Lai suddenly knelt down, and the eunuchs and court ladies also knelt down tremblingly.

"I don't believe it!"

Xie Qiao smashed the hand stove hard on the ground, and it rolled to the door, no one dared to pick it up.

"Where's Zheng Fei? Where's Zheng Fei?! Let him roll over to see Gu! Xu Lai! Let Zheng Fei roll over to see Gu!"

Xu Lai has been with Xie Qiao for seven years, and he has never seen Xie Qiao in such a hysterical manner. He swallowed, and replied in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty, have you forgotten? You... you sent Zheng Fei and General Chen Ling to The Beiguan Supervising Army..."

Xie Qiao flipped the table: "Let him get back! Let them get back!"

Xie Qiao's blood was rushing to his head, and he had not rested for many days, and his body was weak. At this moment, he felt his eyes darken, and fell to the ground.His arm touched the small table, the food fell down, and a cup of hot chicken soup fell onto his arm, and the hot soup seeped into the fabric, causing a bone-piercing pain.

"Your Majesty! Hurry up and teach the imperial physician!"

Xu Lai didn't care too much, and hurried forward to help.But I saw that the emperor, who was usually moody and angry, grabbed his sleeve, his eyes were full of shock and pain, and the veins on his forehead burst out: "Xu Lai, do you know? Beiguan won a big victory, Lu Jue regained me, and Dasheng lost to the enemy. The century-old Yanguan six counties!"

"Your Majesty..." Xu Lai was full of panic—this is a great joy, this is a great joy for the whole world to celebrate, but the emperor...

Seeing the abnormal appearance of the emperor, Xu Lai was shocked, and told the eunuchs and maids: "You go out first. When the imperial doctor comes, please stay outside the hall first."

"Yes." The maids and eunuchs rushed out in a file without even daring to raise their heads, and closed the palace door.

"But..." Xie Qiao held onto Xu Lai's sleeve tightly, and suddenly a crazy and treacherous smile appeared on his face: "They killed Lu Jue...Lu Jue didn't die by the enemy, but by a cold arrow! He died in the In the hands of my Dasheng general!"

He paused every word, and his voice pierced to the bone.

Xu Lai trembled suddenly: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty..."

"They killed Lu Jue! They still have to ask Gu for a reward! Xu Lai! They killed Lu Jue and still ask Gu for a reward!"

"Xu Lai! It's Gu who sent them there! It's Gu - but Gu just wants them to share Lu Jue's merits, not let them kill Lu Jue, no Gu!"

"Your Majesty..." Xu Lai was so anxious that his face was covered with cold sweat, but he couldn't say anything.I can only support the emperor with all my strength to prevent him from falling to the ground.

"Gu don't believe it!" Xie Qiao stood up suddenly, trembling, steadied herself and walked towards the gate of the palace, muttering: "They must have lied to Gu, how could Lu Jue die... he His life is lonely, and if he doesn't let him die, he can't die...Gu is the emperor, he must listen to him, he must listen to him...Go and ask him..."

The gate of the vermilion palace is right in front of him, Xie Qiao always feels that as long as he opens the gate, he will see Lu Jue in military uniform, with black hair tied up, and graceful eyebrows and eyes, standing like a jade tree in the plain white snow. Year.

He stretched out his hand, but felt that the door in front of him was getting farther and farther away, and it became more and more blurred.Finally, everything turned into boundless black, and he staggered and fell to the ground.

"Your Majesty!" Xu Lai quickly stepped forward to support the emperor's body, and shouted out: "Send the imperial physician! Quickly send the imperial physician!"

……

In the darkness that seemed to be boundless, Xie Qiao had a dream.

It was the day before Lu Jue left for Beiguan, he didn't go to the barracks to order soldiers, but he came to the palace.

It was still midsummer at that time, the palace was lined with green trees and the fragrance of lotus was everywhere.The catkins in Jinling City have just finished floating.

"Chen Lu Jue, see Your Majesty."

Lu Jue was clearly a powerful general capable of conquering the sky, but when he took off his general robe and put on the red court uniform, he was as handsome as a Confucian scholar.

"Lu Aiqing?" Xie Qiao narrowed his eyes and scanned the person up and down before saying: "You are going to go to war tomorrow, and you are entering the palace today, what's the matter?"

This is really knowing what to ask.

Lu Jue bowed his body and bowed, like a handsome jade tree whose trunk was bent by the breeze, elegant and dignified.He said: "Lord Lu is just admonishing you bluntly, you shouldn't put him in prison."

"As a minister, he wants to usurp the private affairs of Gu Gu. He is very annoying. Naturally, he has to be taught a big lesson." Xie Qiao played with the jade in his hand and said casually.

"What lesson does Your Majesty want to teach Lord Lu?"

Xie Qiao looked at Lu Jue's drooping eyebrows, imagining the slightly frowned brows on that face, and said two words lightly: "Behead."

Lu Jue raised his head suddenly, his starry eyes were filled with shock and unreasonableness, he lowered his head again and said: "Your Majesty, the Son of Heaven is the Lord of the world, so naturally he has no personal affairs. What Master Lu said is not an offense to His Majesty's private affairs." .You shouldn't treat a loyal admonisher like this."

"The first emperor would not like to see you do this."

Xie Qiao narrowed his eyes dangerously, and the corners of his slightly raised mouth were drawn into a straight line.He stood up suddenly, walked to Lu Jue's side, stared at him and said, "Does Aiqing miss my elder brother so much?"

Lu Jue didn't look at him, but still lowered his eyebrows and said, "Your Majesty, please let Lord Lu go."

Xie Qiao walked in front of him, and because Lu Jue was still saluting, Xie Qiao looked superior.He raised his eyebrows and said, "Lu Jue, you hold great power in your hands, and now you are so persecuted by Gu, do you want to be Wang Mang, or Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao?"

Lu Jue raised his head suddenly, his body swayed, his eyes were dazed and then there was a sad light: "Your Majesty, have you always wanted to be a minister like this?" He looked directly at Xie Qiao Qingjun's eyebrows and asked word by word.

After the sadness dissipated, Lu Jue's eyes ignited a cluster of astonishingly bright and angry flames. He took a step forward, pinched Xie Qiao's white chin, stared closely at Xie Qiao's eyes, and said every word Bitingly awe-inspiring: "Qiaoer, you are the emperor I taught by Lu Jue. Look into my eyes and tell me, will you let Wang Mang take your place? You will let yourself be constrained by Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao, and become a useless puppet." What?!"

"If you are such an emperor, I, Lu Jue, would have wasted half my life!"

Xie Qiao was stunned by Lu Jue's words and deeds for a while, and when he reacted, he slapped Lu Jue's hand fiercely, strode up to the high platform, pointed at the other side high and said: "Lu Jue, you are bold!"

"Your Majesty is guilty." Lu Jue knelt down and saluted, "Your Majesty, please punish me when I return, and please let Lord Lu go."

Xie Qiao laughed angrily, and blurted out the words that had been buried in his heart for an unknown amount of time: "You want to let that stubborn old man go alone? If you stay to serve as a servant today, you will let him go alone!"

"it is good."

Lu Jue straightened up, his back straightened like a jade tree.He looked directly into Xie Qiao's eyes and said.