Surrounded by strong ministers

That day, when Yuhuayuan talked about it, although Han Su resigned angrily in the end, Xiao Zong felt that the Taifu was a little different from before.For example, seeing him wearing plain robes, he no longer raises his eyebrows and stares, and enters the palace to discuss matters, with a pleasant face.For another example, he couldn't help but say a few... intimate words, Han Su always had a bad face before, but now his face is not so ugly now.

These little changes made Xiao Zong feel a little relieved, but after being relieved, he felt even more helpless.

The height is cold, the emperor's palace is deep, and the emperor is so lonely.

It was almost noon that day, Xiao Zong was lonely and busy dealing with government affairs all morning, his back was sore when he got up, he knocked twice, and suddenly remembered that he had promised his younger brother Xiao Hong to have lunch with him today.He hurriedly changed his clothes and went to his younger brother's residence, Chaoyang Palace, but it was too late, he was afraid that it would not be easy for that ancestor to get rid of his temper.

Xiao Zong was always gentle and rarely in a hurry, a group of palace servants thought something important had happened, so they ran after him in a hurry.On the way, he remembered that he hadn't seen his nephews for several days, so he asked his servants to pass them all to Chaoyang Palace. Today they had a lively meal together.

After calculating everything, Xiao Zong was just about to enter the Chaoyang Palace. At this moment, a waiter ran up to him in a hurry, knelt down, and presented a brocade box. The seal of the brocade box was poked with a wild animal totem print.

The servant gasped and said, "Your Majesty, the King of Qin hastened to play for eight hundred miles."

Xiao Zong frowned, since he came to the throne, the king of Qin has given very few reports, and they are all insignificant routine reports.Today, an urgent report suddenly came up on a serious matter, and he instinctively felt that the border was not stable, and some barbarian country was invading?Busily unwrapped the brocade box and opened it to read it. After reading it, he smiled lightly and said to the attendant after a moment of silence: "Go, tell Taifu Han to enter the palace to discuss matters."

Han Su quickly rushed to the imperial study room to meet him, and Ren Buhui, the Minister of Rites, accompanied him to meet the saint.Ren Buhui and Han Su had a good relationship, and when the servant delivered the decree, the two of them were having a drink in the small garden in the inner courtyard of Taifu's mansion. Seeing that Han Su was about to enter the palace, he thought about it, and said that he had something to meet with the king, so he came together .

After kowtowing, Ren Buhui said first: "Your Majesty, I have this performance."

Xiao Zong nodded, and motioned him to say straight, Ren Buhui really didn't mean to lie, he said directly: "The royal court allocates huge financial gifts to the princes and feudal princes every year and festivals, and I request your majesty to order a reduction."

Xiao Zong picked up the teacup, took a sip, and said, "Why did Ren Qing suddenly propose this?"

Ren Buhui said: "To be honest with the emperor, I have had this idea in my belly for several years, and I have been holding it back until I heard His Majesty say in the hall a few days ago that he would not give a copper coin to the King of Qin for his birthday. I feel that I should spit it out quickly." Looking up at Xiao Zong, he continued: "The taxes and tributes of the state capitals have been insufficient for years, there are natural disasters in the localities, the imperial court provides disaster relief, and the treasury is really not full. The same goes out, and my heart aches for the emperor." Finally, he said, "Your majesty, you should be an iron cock at this time."

The corners of Han Su's mouth twitched as he listened, Ren Buhui would either not speak, opening his mouth always made people want to grind their teeth.

After the trial, Xiao Zong was holding a teacup and smiling. He had heard that the minister of rites was the most respected person in the whole court. It was the first time he saw it today, and his reputation was well-deserved.

Xiao Zong thought for a while: "I have the Ministry of Household Affairs to take care of the treasury. Ren Qing has crossed the border with one step."

Ren Buhui was taken aback for a moment, bowed and said, "I am willing to be punished for His Majesty's money."

Xiao Zong couldn't help chuckling, "It's hard for you to have a single idea for several years, thinking of me like this. I will keep your suggestion in mind, and we will talk about it later."

A few days ago, Han Su knew that Xiao Zong didn't want to offend the kings rashly at the moment. The decree to cut silver is like a stone. When a stone is thrown into a lake, it may be just a slight wave of water, or it may stir up thousands of layers. Big waves, a little carelessness, the check and balance situation will be broken.That day when the emperor asked him what to do after the situation broke down, he really didn't know how to answer.

Ren Buhui was a smart man, seeing that his best friend who had always agreed with him did not come out to support him, he understood that there must be some consensus between Han Su and the emperor.

Secretly muttering that Han Su was not affectionate enough, he glanced at the person sitting on the seat, then at the person beside him, turned his eyes, and said with a straight face: "Your Majesty, I have nothing to report, Your Majesty and the Taifu still have important matters to attend to." We discussed alone, Rong Chen resigned." He gritted his teeth on the word 'alone'.

Han Su shuddered and stared over.

Xiao Zong, who was at the top, narrowed his eyes, glanced at Han Su with a vicious face, smiled and said to Ren Buhui: "Don't rush to leave, today's matter should not be missing the Minister of Rites, it would be great if Ren Qing was present but."

Ren Buhui glanced at Han Su, and Han Su also looked at Xiao Zong without knowing when it happened.

Xiao Zong picked up the memorabilia that the King of Qin sent to Beijing on eight hundred li horses on the table, and said: "This was presented by the King of Qin. It just arrived in my hands. He said that he failed to pay homage to me and ascended the throne. He felt very disrespectful and decided to make up for it. return."

"Make it up?" Ren Buhui frowned.

Xiao Zong nodded, "He has decided to go to Beijing to pay homage to me now." Seeing the two lovers stare, he added, "According to what King Qin said in his book, he is already on his way."

Han Su and Ren Buhui glanced at each other in unison.

It has been more than 200 years since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and a total of six kings with different surnames were granted before and after.Five of the six kings, Chu, Jin, Han, and Zhaoyan, were canonized by the Taizu Emperor at the beginning of the founding of the country, and only the King of Qin was conferred by Xiao Zong's grandfather, Emperor Renshun.

During Emperor Renshun's reign, he conquered Tatars, a barbarian tribe in the northwest, three times. The last time he personally conquered, he was besieged by Prince Huxie of the Tatars at the border Qishan Mountain, and almost lost his life.When it was extremely critical, a group of foreign flags who had just surrendered to Zhou rushed to rescue him.Wild Banner King Tuobahong not only rescued the emperor from danger, but also led his troops to fight all the way, flattening the Tatar king's capital, and Tatar has since been incorporated into the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Emperor Renshun survived and got rid of a serious confidant, the dragon heart was happy, and he overwhelmed the objections of the officials, breaking the two admonitions of the emperor Taizu that he should no longer be a king and not to treat a foreign race as a king, and put sixteen state capitals in the northwest It was designated as the fiefdom of the Wild Banner Department, and Tuoba Hong was appointed King of Qin, hereditary king.

The current King of Qin is Tuoba Feng, the third son of Tuoba Hong, who has only inherited his father's title for eight months.

Tuoba Feng had never been to the capital, and the people in the capital knew only rumors about this newly succeeded King Qin.

As for the rumors, Ren Buhui has heard many kinds of rumors. Some say that King Qin is a man of culture and martial arts, a generation of heroes, others say that King Qin is barbaric, brutal, iron-blooded and ruthless, and some say that King Qin is insidious, cunning, and unjust.

It's just that no one said that King Qin was a loyal minister.

Ren Buhui pondered slightly: "When will he enter Beijing?"

Xiao Zong put away the booklet and said calmly: "The tenth day of next month."

Han Su frowned when he heard the words: "On his birthday?"

Xiao Zong nodded: "That's right, it was that day. As soon as I said something in the Daming Palace, King Qin seemed to have heard it."

Ren Buhui thought to himself, King Qin is really not a good person.He raised his eyes to look at the emperor on the throne, and felt more and more that his sentence made sense-this emperor is indeed a lucky and unlucky emperor.

The courtiers agreed that Xiao Zong had good luck.

Emperor Renming gave birth to 21 sons in total, and the sons were prosperous, but only nine of them successfully grew up—Rui Gongfu, Ning Renkang, Duan Antai, in order of seniority, Xiao Zong, the fourteenth prince, ranked seventh.Leaving aside Xiao Zong, the Nine Kings who survived are all outstanding, true dragons and phoenixes.To this day, there are still good people whispering in private, that Prince Rui is excellent in strategy, Prince Gong is good at controlling people, and King Kang is heroic and domineering... None of these outstanding dragon sons are willing to be inferior to others, and they all want to look down on the common people.Emperor Renming is alive, and the political situation in Gyeonggi is on the verge of breaking out.After a few months of chaos between the government and the public, they finally calmed down, but it was because the seven kings fought so badly that they all died, and none of them survived.Seeing that the chaos is about to break out, the world is in chaos, at the critical moment, everyone remembered that there was still a king Duan living in Xinyang Palace, so under the leadership of Prime Minister Wen Ting, they knelt down outside the gate of Xinyang Palace, which had been cold for ten years, respectfully Xiao Zong ushered in the throne.

Many people secretly feel that this is life.How many people have worked so hard to end up with a different head, and some people have won the world leisurely.

It was his luck that the emperor Xiao Zong got it cheap.

But he was also unlucky.

From the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty to today, the fortunes of the country have gone from being in full swing to declining. The vassal kings of various places are already ready to move, and the battle in the palace in Gyeonggi has stirred up the situation like a pot of boiling oil.

What Xiao Zong faced when he ascended the throne was actually a mess where the princes were on the verge of rebellion.

Since ancient times, there must be a hero in troubled times, and heroes are born in response to the situation.Ren Buhui subconsciously looked at the emperor sitting on the throne, and all kinds of compelling rumors about King Qin, King Chu, and other kings were churning in his mind.He was entangled in a mess, sighed secretly, and asked: "How does the emperor respond?"

Xiao Zong said: "I heard about the name Tuoba Feng when I was still in Xinyang Palace, and I wanted to meet him a long time ago." To Ren Buhui, he said: "You are the servant of the Ministry of Rites, and it is your duty to greet him, so I will obey Get ready to welcome him with the gift of the feudal king."

Ren Buhui bowed to receive the order, and out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Han Su who hadn't said a word.

Han Su frowned and remained silent, the news was so sudden, he couldn't figure out what the King of Qin's purpose in coming to the capital was, he only felt that a sharp sword was pointed at Xiao Zong from afar before, but now it was suddenly pointed at his neck.

After a while, he said: "The defense of the imperial city must be strengthened. From the first day of next month until King Qin leaves the capital, please redo the deployment of the [-] imperial guards in the city." The old general led [-] forbidden troops to drill and went to Mount Meng, and I also asked the emperor to recall them and station them outside the capital, just in case."

He was seriously worried, but Xiao Zong smiled lightly: "Teacher is worrying too much, are you going to start a war with King Qin like this? Tuoba Fengshou, how many people can he bring? Everything in the imperial city is as usual."

What else did Han Su want to say, Xiao Zong raised his hand and stopped, thinking of something, he said: "For the time being, you don't need to say anything about King Qin's entry into the capital, I don't want too many people to know about it."

Han Suren Bugui glanced at each other, puzzled.

"I want to keep my ears clean for a few more days," said the Son of Heaven.

After discussing business matters, it's getting late.Because of King Qin's remark, Xiao Zong broke his agreement to have dinner with his younger brothers and nephews, and returned directly to the Imperial Study from the gate of Chaoyang Palace, with an empty stomach at the moment.He looked at Han Su and Ren Buhui who were hungry like him in all likelihood, got up and walked off the throne: "The two lovers haven't had a meal, have they? Eat with me in the palace before leaving."

The two were about to thank each other, when a panting, anxious and obviously trying to calm down voice came from outside: "Your Majesty... something is wrong, His Royal Highness King Tai fell into the water!"