Lord Prime Minister

In the 48th year of Guangcheng, there was a hundred-year drought.

The water level of the Ningjiang River, which flows through most of the land of the Huangfu Dynasty, dropped severely after the continuous scorching sun. The most severely affected area was the lower plains of the Ningjiang River.

After a rain in spring, the rain did not fall. The land under the scorching sun was cracked, the crops died, and there was no water or food. Countless people died of starvation in the plains, which were always prosperous.

Thousands of people died of starvation and thirst in just over a month. Officials in Jixian, Wuxian, and Menglai counties knew they were incompetent, so they were willing to take off their black gauze hats to plead guilty. Don't care if others are covered in frost.

In the middle of the night, a secret letter was hurriedly presented to Emperor Guangcheng's case.

In the early morning of the next day, two officials were dismissed. The Huangfu Dynasty had strict laws and regulations. The two former governors were beheaded on the spot. Their heads rolled a few times and they stopped by the pillar with their eyes open. Blood flowed all over the floor. All officials knelt down. I'm sorry, I lowered my body and didn't dare to raise my head.

"What do I keep you guys for? Raising soldiers for a thousand days and using them for a short time! You! What's the use of keeping you! Let's settle this matter today, or I'll chop off your heads!"

Emperor Guangcheng was furious, threw the paper in his hand on the ground, and slapped the dragon chair heavily. The loud voice echoed in the hall like thunder. After he finished speaking, he coughed heavily. A cup of tea.

All civil and military officials prostrated themselves on the ground, trembling, for fear of offending the Holy Majesty and ending up in the same fate as those two.

After drinking a cup of clear tea, the breath gradually stabilized. Emperor Guangcheng handed back the teacup, and scanned the people below one by one with his sharp eyes.

"Left Prime Minister, what do you think?"

The eldest Sun Xiuwen bent down, the tip of his nose almost touched the ground, and his long beard dragged to the ground.He stood up, moved a step to the left and bowed to the dragon chair.

"In my opinion, the county magistrate Chen of Ji County, the magistrate of Wu County of Wu County, and the magistrate of Menglai County are all good officials who care about the people and love the people, so they will take the blame and resign. If an official is sent to command, everyone will be united. If you have a backbone, you will get twice the result with half the effort. As for those officials who are self-sufficient, they don’t care about the life and death of the people, and they should be dismissed and investigated.”

When Emperor Guangcheng heard the words, he neither nodded nor objected, but fell into deep thought.

"The left minister's words are wrong." A voice sounded a bit abruptly in the hall, all the officials did not raise their heads, just by listening to the voice, one knew that the person who spoke was Cai Chong, the right minister who faced the left minister every day.

"Those three county magistrates are not good at handling things. Right is right, wrong is wrong, right is rewarded, wrong is punished, and rewards and punishments are the way to govern the country. If everyone shirks responsibility, will the consequences be left to the left?" Cai Chong glanced at the left with a pair of inverted triangular eyes, and saluted Emperor Guangcheng: "Your Majesty, I think that removing all the officials from the drought-stricken areas and replacing them with new ones who just took office this year will definitely have a miraculous effect."

"You think so?" Emperor Guangcheng leaned back slightly on the dragon chair.

"Exactly."

"Your Majesty." Prime Minister Zuo took another step forward, bent down and said in admonition: "If this matter is handled by a new official, lack of experience must be a big problem, and someone should be sent to guide it."

Emperor Guangcheng nodded in agreement: "Then who is a good candidate for the left?"

"This..." Zuo Xiang was at a loss for words, but he hadn't thought of a suitable candidate yet.

Cai Chong rolled his eyes, took a step forward and said, "Your Majesty, I have a recommendation from my minister."

"Who?"

"Second prince..."

"No!" Before Cai Chong finished speaking, Changsun Xiuwen hurriedly interrupted: "Although the second highness is smart, he is indeed inexperienced in dealing with droughts, and the second highness is in charge of learning martial arts recently, so he really can't take time off."

"As far as I know, the second prince has stopped practicing martial arts with Coach Lin, and has already started to learn how to govern the country. At this time, he can put what he has learned into practice, and the second prince has been quick-witted since he was a child. Crisis." Cai Chong smiled slightly, retorting that Chang Sun Xiuwen was at a loss for words.

"No!" Changsun Xiuwen shouted, but couldn't find a reason to refute.If His Highness the Second Highness were really allowed to leave the palace this time to deal with the severe drought, it would not be possible to come back for a year or two.At that time, I am afraid that the eldest prince will already be in power and will hold great power in his hands.

"Your Majesty!" Changsun Xiuwen searched for a way to prevent the second prince from leaving the palace, and suddenly thought of someone. "Your Majesty, I have a more suitable candidate here."

"Then who does Prime Minister Zuo think is more suitable?"

"Fifth prince, Lord Minqing."

What happened in the early morning court reached Huangfu Yunhua's ears in the afternoon. When the housekeeper handed over the letter, Huangfu Yunhua was drinking tea while listening to the voice of Mu Zihuai teaching his little brother to read poems.The crisp voice read the poem with ups and downs, like singing, Huangfu Yunhua felt a little drowsy.

After reading the short two lines on the letter paper, Huangfu Yunhua looked a little bit troubled, but his heart was clear. Not only was he not dissatisfied with this matter, he was even somewhat happy about it.

"A message came along with the letter, saying that His Royal Highness will come to thank the prince in a few days."

"En." Huangfu Yunhua nodded, put away the letter paper, and replied lazily.

Mu Zihuai's clear voice of reading was heard again, Huangfu Yunhua's eyelids sank slightly, and he slowly closed his eyes.

Well, after three months of studying "Compassion for Farmers", I finally changed it.

"Quiet Night Thoughts"?

Not bad.

Mu Zihuai recited the famous poem "Thoughts in a Quiet Night" that almost everyone knows again, the good temper on his face has long been polished, holding a ruler in his hand, looking at Long Lei sitting below who hates iron for being weak .

It took him three whole months to learn the last song "Compassion to the Nong", and now he is stumping at this song "Thoughts in a Quiet Night".

Although he is already 11 years old, he has not learned many poems that he can memorize. After three years, apart from writing good handwriting, he only knows three things.On the other hand, he practiced martial arts with Long two years ago, and his martial arts improved by leaps and bounds.

Mu Zihuai broke his head in anxiety, and slapped the ruler hard on the desk of Long Lei who was distracted. "What are you thinking about? Endorsing the memorization, if you can't memorize this today, you don't need to eat."

Long Lei was thinking about the sugar figurine he sneaked out to buy yesterday, and was worried about going out to buy another one someday, when the sudden loud noise made him jump three feet high.

Putting on a sparring pose in a funny way, his eyes shifted to focus, and he saw Mu Zihuai's half-black face clearly, Long Lei slowly withdrew his fists and sat back on the desk, scratching his head and flattering him: "Brother Zihuai, I'm going to learn from you." If you don’t come here, don’t force me to endorse the book, I’m going to lose my head.”

clap clap!

The ruler hit the table twice, making Long Lei jump in fright.

"Then what else do you want to learn?"

When Mu Zihuai asked, Long Lei's eyes lit up. "Learn martial arts, be a guard like my brother."

Three years have passed, and the 16-year-old Long Xiu has changed into an armed body and has become a guard of the palace, responsible for the safety of the people in the palace.Long Lei has always regarded him as a goal, and determined to be a majestic guard in the future.

Snapped!

This time the ruler directly hit Long Xiu's palm. "What's so good about learning from your brother! Just memorize the book and don't think about anything else."

Mu Zi was full of anger. Long Xiu just told him a few days ago that he wanted to be a soldier and go to the battlefield to kill the enemy.

What's so good about fighting.It's not that Mu Zihuai values ​​culture over martial arts, but that there have been frequent urgent reports from the border in the past few years.With Long Xiu's small body, if he went to the battlefield, he would not be enough to hold his teeth.

Just as he was thinking, the door of the study room that Mu Zihuai used as a school was gently pushed open, and a figure appeared at the door.

Mu Zihuai knew who came in, so he gave him a hard look, and turned to Long Lei to vent his anger: "Quickly memorize, if you don't memorize, you won't be able to eat."

Long Lei turned his head to look at the person, his eyes glowed with joy, two dimples appeared on his round face, and he threw away the book in his hand. "Brother, you are here, is it time to practice martial arts?"

In the past three years, Long Xiu's stature has become a little fierce, and he is already about the same height as Mu Zihuai, but he has grown too fast, but his nutrition has not kept up.

Rubbing Long Lei's hair, Long Xiu glanced at Mu Zihuai, who was reading carefully with a book, and said in a hoarse voice that had changed his voice: "Well, you go to zama stance first, and I'll teach you new tricks later. boxing."

As soon as Long Lei heard the music, he patted the wrinkled clothes on his buttocks, and jumped out of the study.

snort!

Mu Zihuai stared at the book, but listened to the conversation between the two brothers with his ears. He snorted heavily to express his dissatisfaction.

Long Xiu walked over and pointed to the book in Mu Zihuai's hand. "Your book is upside down."

Boom!Mu Zihuai closed the book, raised his eyes and waited for Long Xiu who was as thin as a bamboo pole.

Long Xiu looked at Mu Zihuai's ink-painted eyebrows, stretched out his hand to touch him, then turned his hand around, and put the books on the table into the bookshelf. "I have already asked the prince, and the prince said that if he is recruited, he will leave a way for me."

"You really want to go to the battlefield?" Mu Zihuai frowned. He didn't expect Long Xiu to make the decision without his objection. He was a little surprised for a while.

Long Xiu nodded. "think."

"No!" Mu Zihuai closed his eyes and yelled loudly regardless of his image: "You are only 16 years old, and you are still a child. How can you go out and kill the enemy?"

"A few days ago, I just finished the hair-tying ceremony, and I have reached the age of conscription."

"Did you plan to be a soldier a long time ago?" The more Mu Zihuai thought about it, the more he felt that Long Xiu had already had such an idea, otherwise he wouldn't have announced that he wanted to be a soldier when he just reached the age of being a soldier.

"Yes." Long Xiu said the truth, and did not intend to hide it from Mu Zihuai.

"You can be a soldier, at least until the weak crown becomes an adult!" After thinking twice, Mu Zihuai took a step back and discussed.

Unexpectedly, Long Xiu shook his head directly. "There are still two years, I don't want to wait."

Mu Zihuai took a deep breath and said firmly, "Two years later."

Long Xiu didn't speak anymore, didn't agree, and didn't refute anymore.

Mu Zihuai can't do anything about this stuffy gourd. Over the past three years, Long Lei's personality has become more and more cheerful and mischievous. At that time, Mu Zihuai had nothing to do with him.

This kind of personality that can't let out a fart with a stick really makes Mu Zihuai a headache. Put down the cruel words and let him wait for two years. Mu Zihuai is worried that he may collapse in the face of him, and walks away.

Long Xiu rearranged the messy books on the table and put them back on the bookshelf, and straightened the crooked tables and chairs before walking towards the training ground.