Aggrieved Fish Sprite

Taijing Imperial City.

Green smoke curled up, and the curtains hung down.

Even in such a hot season, only a small window was opened in the outer hall.

Once a person walks in, he will feel the hot air enveloping him in an instant, and he can't help but sweat like rain. In addition, there are several incense burners in the hall that are emitting hot mist, which is like a small steamer.

Emperor Yongchen was suffering from a chronic illness, and the imperial physician was almost always stationed in the dormitory, working shifts day and night.

Even the decoction didn’t work because he drank too much, so he switched to smoked medicine mist. Although the medicine is effective in this way, it’s better than spitting out the medicine, and Emperor Yongchen’s body can’t stand the strong medicine anymore. .

When Lu Jie was still the crown prince, there were rumors in the imperial city that he was dying of illness.

Since Lu Jie came to the throne, almost all the people in the inner court and the outer court have changed, and the imperial medical office is no exception. The difference is that the imperial physicians are very strict now. No matter who comes to ask about Emperor Yongchen's condition, they will either keep silent or talk about it. A bunch of medicinal prevarications made Waichao confused about the emperor's condition.

Anyway, Lu Jie has been weak for many years and has hardly ever been healthy.

The emperor has no children, and it seems unlikely that he will have an heir.

Among his brothers, the second prince disappeared due to treason, and the third prince and sixth prince are not married yet, so it is impossible to talk about adopting the son to the elder brother.

The courtiers secretly lined up to support the two princes separately, making preparations for the next round of political games.

However, this battle has not officially come to the fore.

On the one hand, the two righteous masters lack interest, and they don't even listen to others mentioning "Emperor Yongchen's death". There is an obvious opportunity for Kang Zhuang Dao to enter the cabinet and pay homage to the prime minister. The matter of who will be the emperor in the future will be discussed in the future, and the immediate matter is more important.

No matter how capable Emperor Yongchen was, he was in poor health and could not reverse the current situation of the government and the opposition in a short period of time.

In other words, even if he has a strong physique that reviews memorials day and night, it will not help. It is difficult to eliminate officials and governance. It is definitely not something that can be changed by the collapse of a certain faction.

"Cough cough."

Lu Jie read Jin Yiwei's secret report and didn't say anything for a long time. Then he coughed suddenly, and everyone was startled.

The third prince and the sixth prince glared at Gong Jun, and the latter could only keep his head buried in silence.

"Brother Emperor, your body is the most important thing, don't be too sad..."

Lu De, the sixth son, wanted to persuade him, but swallowed half of what he said in frustration. The whole family of the Ning family died in battle. How tragic is this?Regardless of whether it is for the country or for personal interests, this is terrible news, so how can a few simple words of comfort be effective?

The sixth prince is still young, he used to be like a hedgehog, with a paranoid personality, he would stab whoever he catches.

In the past few months after Lu Zhang's death, he has grown up rapidly. If he doesn't talk anymore, he has the posture of revenge. He is not so resentful and cynical. before.

"Old General Huai Yi spent his whole life in the army, attacked the barbarians in the north, and conquered the frontiers in the west. He always regarded the common people and soldiers as brothers and sisters. He did not care for glory or wealth. He is a great hero. The imperial court should take care of his future affairs and add a posthumous title...and send troops at the same time Go to the southwest and fight against the king granted by heaven."

Gong Jun bit the bullet and said that if he could, he didn't want to disturb Emperor Yongchen when he was sad, but the military situation was like a fire, and if there was a slight mistake, there would be even bigger troubles.

Emperor Yongchen gently pushed away his younger brothers who were trying to support him. He became thinner and weaker, and said weakly: "Xuanchuan Pass occupies a natural barrier, and King Tianshou has failed to return after several attacks. The Ning family will not ignore the enemy. , there must be other reasons for this defeat."

"...According to the news, it seems that a Jianghu Gang in Yizhou assisted the King of God." Gong Jun felt a headache when he thought of Thunderbolt Hall.

The sixth prince stood up straight, and subconsciously wanted to ridicule Gong Jun, how could a mere gangster break through the dangerous pass? Could it be that a top expert like Meng Qi acted as an assassin?When the words came to his lips, he forcibly endured them back, and said with a smile on his face, "What did they do?"

Gong Jun bowed his head and said: "The details are unknown, but Your Majesty should have heard of the gang name 'Thunderbolt Hall'."

"Brother Dahuang, how could he have heard of Jianghu Gang..."

In the middle of the sixth prince's speech, he saw Emperor Yongchen put down the palm that was supporting his forehead, his eyes were dignified and thoughtful.

At this time, the third prince said in a muffled voice: "Sixth brother, you claim to be smarter than others, and you can read a hundred times better than my second brother and I. How can you not care about what you should know?"

"you!"

Seeing the black corns of the two people fighting, Emperor Yongchen coughed, and the two of them just remembered where it was, and quickly looked away, pretending that nothing happened.

The corners of Gong Jun's mouth twitched, his heart is easy to change, and his nature is difficult to change. After the crown prince ascended the throne, the two princes seemed to have become calm and capable overnight. In fact, they were just expressing themselves in front of Emperor Yongchen. They were two childish ghosts.

It would be better if they were fighting for the succession to the throne as the courtiers thought. In fact, these two princes were most keen on giving eye drops to the second prince Lu Min in front of Emperor Yongchen.

Lu Min has changed his name and surname, followed Jin Yiwei's secret subordinates to investigate the imperial examination fraud case, his head seems to have become a little brighter, and he is gradually promising. Gong Jun also whispered behind his back that Meng Guoshi was well trained, and Emperor Yongchen was very pleased.Lu Min will not be the emperor in the future, at least he can be a capable minister. It stands to reason that the third prince and the sixth prince should win over this second elder brother. Maybe in the future Jinyiwei will be controlled by Lu Min. This is not a small help. As a result, the two The popularity is bad, as if the urchins in the private school don't like to study, suddenly betrayed the little friend, worked hard and won the teacher's award, what is it if it is not a naive ghost?

Gong Jun suppressed his slander, and explained: "The source of the martyrdom is related to the Chen Dynasty government's big craftsman workshop. The craftsman Lei Qun improved the formula of gunpowder and made more ingenious firearms, which made the Chen Dynasty army sweep across Monan. Yinshan destroyed the barbarians. However, after the army led the army, the emperor of the Chen Dynasty felt the danger of firearms, which could make a feeble scholar who had no strength to restrain chickens easily eliminate dozens of soldiers, and was even more afraid that the palace would be destroyed when rebels and thieves rebelled in the future , and the foreign enemies were no longer in control, so they simply dismantled the firearms battalion, burned the relevant blueprints, and banned the manufacture. Some generals argued hard, but they were dismissed, and those craftsmen did not wait for the bounty, but brought disaster to their families."

Such perverse actions will naturally cause endless troubles.

The frontier soldiers were particularly annoyed. If they had firearms and didn't use them, they had to fight with flesh and blood?The far-sighted civil servants lamented again and again, just a short -->>

There is no dead remonstrance.

Under such circumstances, there are many people who are obedient and vicious. Some people think that the family members of the artisan household have let go of their hands. Anyway, they are some women and children, so why kill them all.

Among them, Lei Tong, the youngest son of Lei Qun, a craftsman, just turned ten years old, he was born thin and small, and was assigned to border customs for children under the age of seven.

"...No one would have thought that this Lei Tong is a rare talent. He can make many kinds of clever things at a young age. He met those disgruntled old soldiers at the border and heard them describe firearms. It took several years to find out the key points, and he insisted on recreating the destroyed blueprints and firearms. Lei Tong studied hard and practiced hard. He went to battle and killed the enemy and got out of slavery. One day, the barbarians will be detained again and ordered to be executed. The emperor of his family is dead, so he can revive his family...Unfortunately, someone secretly reported him for tampering with prohibited items. The old emperor was furious, and ordered the relevant people to be accused and exterminate the three clans. Finding a chance to escape, he fled with his comrades who had been friends with him for many years. Since then, he has been wandering around to avoid the court's investigation, hiding his name, and only settled down in Yizhou when he was old.

Gong Jun sighed, not only the sixth prince in the palace listened intently, even the third prince was no exception.

The third prince only knew a little about it before, so how could there be such a detailed ins and outs?In addition, Gong Jun was originally from the rivers and lakes, and later entered the officialdom, so he deliberately learned about this anecdote, so he told it so eloquently, it was almost like a storyteller.

Especially when Gong Jun said these things, he did not shy away from the imperial authority.A civil servant with a background in the imperial examination, even if he talked about the mistakes of the former emperor, would have to hide it vaguely. There are definitely a few who dare to speak out. For no other reason, being an emperor likes being an emperor, especially Lu Zhang.

Emperor Yongchen didn't care about this, because they had a father who couldn't explain it all, and the brothers didn't have much respect for the imperial power. What's wrong with the emperor, the emperor can't make big mistakes?Don't deserve to die if you make a big mistake?Why don't others say it?

Gong Jun discovered this early on. He adjusted the route of "being an official in a stable way and retiring safely in the future". Others are more pleasing to the eye.

"Lei Tong has suffered setbacks all his life, and it is said that his temperament is eccentric and extreme, but he is indeed an unworldly talent. He changed firearms into hidden weapons commonly used by people in the Jianghu, and secretly sold them to make a living. After his death, his children and grandchildren relied on these The old man has survived for several generations."

Although it has been improved by outstanding Lei family children, it is still not as good as the ancestors.

Otherwise, in the last years of the Chen Dynasty, when the heroes competed for the world, there would be a part of the Thunderbolt Hall.

In order to suppress the rebellion, the Chen Dynasty started to manufacture artillery again. The Chu Dynasty knew the benefits of artillery, and the subsequent Qi Dynasty continued these habits. The government could produce a large amount of wrought iron to supervise the manufacture of artillery. Some small things have been going around in the rivers and lakes for so many years, and they haven't made much progress, but this has saved them.

"There was a general in the Chu Dynasty who proposed to clear the martyrdom, thinking that it was a hidden danger. In the end, seeing that the martyrdom was not a thing, it was just a mere gangster, so it was shelved."

If it weren't for these records, Emperor Yongchen wouldn't be able to get the name of Thunderbolt Hall.

He leaned against the pillow, coughed a few times, and asked with difficulty: "So...they are helping the Heavenly King? The palace commanders don't know... Cough, there are not only old general Ning's soldiers and horses in Xuanchuan Pass, but also old generals. Some righteous men in the rivers and lakes have high martial arts skills. Even if Pilitang wanted to bring gunpowder into Xuanchuan Pass, it would be very difficult. "

As he said that, he waved his hand and asked the servant, Mr. Chen, to present the topographic map of Xuanchuan Pass.

"This……"

Gong Jun hesitated, staring at the map up and down.

This kind of picture is a military secret, and Gong Jun had never seen it before today, so he had a guess when he heard the Thunderbolt Hall, but he didn't expect that it would not work.

After much deliberation, Gong Jun decided to ask Xuanchuanguan the names of those righteous men in the rivers and lakes. After all, he, an expert in martial arts, can judge whether he is good at martial arts. There are not many that can be seen in the eyes.

Emperor Yongchen's eyes dimmed, as if he remembered something.

"Elder Brother?"

"Nothing...just, it's a long story."

Emperor Yongchen closed his eyes and said softly, "It's the monks of Baoxiang Temple, including Master Yuanzhi."

Gong Jun was startled, Monk Yuan Zhi was unknown in the Jianghu, no one would know about it, but Gong Jun was the commander of Jin Yiwei, and he knew all kinds of news like the back of his hand, how could he miss a Buddhist temple where all the monks have good martial arts skills? ?

Baoxiang Temple is not like Hengchang Temple, a famous sect on the rivers and lakes. It is a real Buddhist temple and rarely participated in the battles of the rivers and lakes. Instead, it assisted a rebel army to rescue the people in the last years of the Chen Dynasty.

Wait, it seems that the rebel army was led by General Ning later?

How quickly Gong Jun's mind turned, he quickly thought of Emperor Yongchen's same mother and brother who survived the catastrophe, it is said that he was taken to a Buddhist temple by the servants of the Ning family, so--the whole family of the Ning family died in battle, could it be possible that even that Is the nameless prince dead too?

"The next officer is going to search for further information and try to find out what happened that day at Xuanchuan Pass."

Gong Jun resigned after saluting, and did not ask Emperor Yongchen how to deal with the Heavenly Granted King.

It was an errand for the Ministry of War, and it was something that the gentlemen of the Wenyuan Pavilion had to worry about. He could just mention it, and he didn't care about the rest.

Before stepping out of this dreary bedroom, Gong Jun vaguely heard Emperor Yongchen say to his two younger brothers: "...Dr. If it can't be cured, it can't be ruled out...the heaven-sent king must be punished, otherwise...to occupy the south of the Yangtze River, and the general situation..."

Gong Jun walked further and further away, and when he looked up, he saw a sunset that was about to sink into the sky.

A large swath of darkness engulfed the sky, leaving only the crimson glow of the setting sun.

In the past, Lu Zhang was afraid of the Ning family, and the crown prince was worried that if he died, the Ning family would have no way out and would be forced to rebel. However, those who were already dying today did not die, but sent away those who did not deserve to die. How sad it is.

Gong Jun let out a long breath. How similar is this afterglow to Lu Jie, Emperor Yongchen?

No matter how brilliant it is, it will eventually fade away.

But as Lu Gui said, the Qi Dynasty should not die, because the people should not die.

The government must be governed even if it is rotten to the root, let alone sit back and watch the heaven-sent king seize the south of the Yangtze River.

——The south of the Yangtze River is rich enough to fatten the heavenly king and send troops to the Northern Expedition.