Chapter 172: A hundred years of loneliness

Fan Xian walked out of the East Palace, turned around and closed the two thick palace gates himself. He looked at the crowded crowds around the East Palace. His face was calm, but his heart was filled with unknown emotions. After calming a little, he waved to Eunuch Yao, who was at the front of the crowd.

Eunuch Yao spent the difficult time on Dadong Mountain with His Majesty. After Mr. Hong sacrificed his life for the country, he naturally became the number one figure in the court in Qing. However, Fan Xian still waved casually as usual.

Eunuch Yao hunched his body and respectfully stepped forward to obey orders. Judging from this behavior, anyone has no doubt that Fan Xian will have supreme power in the future.

Fan Xian whispered something in the ear of Eunuch Yao. Eunuch Yao looked slightly suspicious and did not dare to question Fan Xian's orders. At this time, he could not ask the emperor of the East Palace. After thinking for a few minutes, he took the group outside the East Palace to the periphery and kept a long distance from the East Palace.

Fan Xian also followed them to the side of Xiaolin in the palace, looking at the quiet East Palace from afar, guessing what His Majesty and the Prince were saying at this time. Letting these people in the palace retreat farther was actually for safety reasons. He didn't know if the emperor would say something that he would never want people to know when he got angry.

This was even more for him to consider himself, because only a few people in the world knew the real reason why His Majesty was determined to abolish the prince, and this matter was originally woven by him. The emperor knew his cultivation level, and if he stayed outside the Eastern Palace and heard the secrets in the palace, no one would be happy.

Fan Xian pursed his dry lips and looked at the Donggong with worry. He thought that Cheng Qian had soft outside and strong inside, but he was afraid that he would take the same path as his second son. After careful consideration, he was actually a bit complicated. It was himself who forced the prince to a dead end. But... Who would have thought that the situation would develop like this? The things he and Chen Pingping did secretly seemed to drive away wolves and tigers, but in the end, a real dragon shook out from the world.

Over the past few years, everyone around Your Majesty passed or took the initiative to stand opposite Your Majesty. Chen Pingping and Fan Xian finally successfully turned Your Majesty into a lonely family, but then they are lonely. If they are scarce, they are still the top one in the world. And once they are full of momentum, they are actually trying to swallow the sun and the moon, which makes Fan Xian feel chilled and afraid.

The situation in the East Palace is different from Fan Xian’s guess. The emperor and the prince and his son did not have a few words at the beginning, and they were caught in some hysterical family and rural drama quarrels. In the real royal family, there will never be an excited person like Ma Jingtao, and there are only indifference, coldness, calmness, and coldness.

The emperor sat on the stone steps very freely and casually. His legs were spread apart. He looked at the gate of the East Palace and thought about the good news that he had been waiting outside the gate for the queen's childbirth many years ago. That day, the palace was full of joy. The empress dowager was extremely happy, but her mood became a little more solemn in addition to joy.

It was not until the pregnant woman outside the palace that he became happy that he knew that the other party was indeed not an ordinary woman in the world. He had never cared about the dragon throne in his heart, nor did he think about trying to rescue the seemingly seductive throne for the child in his womb.

It is this attitude that made the emperor feel a little unhappy. After twenty years, this unhappiness has long become a forgotten emotion. But occasionally, when he was in the small building in the harem, he couldn't help but complain, "An Zhi is your child, isn't my child?"

Twenty years have passed, and the child who was destined to be the successor to the throne of Qing Kingdom has grown up. He is sitting beside him, with long hair spreading softly behind him. There is only peace and acceptance of his fate between his eyebrows and eyes.

The child in the belly of the woman outside the palace was now outside the East Palace, not knowing which corner he was standing, watching the movements of the East Palace.

The emperor subconsciously took the teacup that the prince drank from the front of the steps, and took a sip to his lips, but he didn't know the heat and cold.

"My Daqing finally became the country soon." For some reason, the emperor chose to speak from here and said slowly: "Although Northern Qi is only a second generation, he inherited the great Wei Dynasty's fortunes and was much more stable within it. More than ten years ago, the emperor of Northern Qi died suddenly. The empress was young and the prince was young. If he were placed in Daqing, I was afraid that the force of the palace would become... Even if Ku He came forward, he would not be able to do so."

Li Chengqian's eyes fell on his father's hand holding a teacup.

"The reason for this is that Daqing is a country that has been built on the battlefield. The military is powerful and used to using swords to preach reasoning and rituals to control the power of the emperor. How can we convince people?" The emperor's eyes were a little indifferent, "So if we want to be the monarch of Daqing, we should not be able to be just be generous and kind. We must have iron-blooded means and tenacity."

He turned his head to look at his son and said, "You have grown up in the palace since you were young, and you have become famous for your kindness at the age of eight..." At this point, a hint of mocking appeared on the corner of your lips, "It was just to help a few injured rabbits wrap their feet, and those servants just kept pleasing their mother's favor, saying that you will definitely be a benevolent king in the future."

"Just be generous is cowardly, and I will definitely dominate the world in Daqing. For fifty years, the world will be full of disputes, and the old royal families will be unwilling to accept it. In the past fifty years, they will lay the foundation for ten thousand years... I only have time to conquer this country, and to guard this country, but I want you." The emperor retracted his gaze and said, "How can a benevolent king, a cowardly king, defend this country?"

Li Chengqian glanced at his father, and a self-deprecating smile appeared on the corner of his lips. Then he realized that his father had been thinking about what would happen decades more than ten years ago. He had the confidence to unify the world, but he had to think about how the country would continue in a hundred years.

"So I lifted Chengze out to fight with you." The emperor closed his eyes and said slowly: "Now I think about it, you two were still young at that time, and I seemed to be a little too anxious."

Li Chengqian still did not speak up.

"I also wanted to see if Chengze is promising, but... in just one year, I saw that his thoughts and mistakes were false. As an emperor, he should have awesomeness, but he... did not." The emperor still closed his eyes, as if he was telling a distant story on the way, "So I have firmly determined the idea of ​​passing the country on you. But in those years, your performance really disappointed me and lingered in the flower shop. Every night, he made his body look like a disgusting."

Li Chengqian laughed at himself and finally said slowly: "Father, I was only fourteen or fifteen years old at that time. I first learned about human affairs. I thought you wanted to ruin me. I was frightened every night, so I had to find some feelings in the pile of powder."

What was surprising was that the emperor was not angry when he heard this. Instead, he smiled and said, "Chengze was too restless, but he was smart and finally saw clearly what I was thinking in my heart. But he had already come out and had to continue to move on. From this perspective, your second brother deeply understands my heart."

"The knife may be sharpened, but if it is not sharp, it will never be sharp." The emperor opened his eyes, looked at his son calmly, and said, "The second child did not sharpen you. Instead, he dulled you and happened to enter Kyoto..."

Li Chengqian laughed and thought about the first time he saw Fan Xianshi outside the other courtyard. As the crown prince, he never took the son of the minister. Unexpectedly, the son of the minister finally became his brother and the hardest whetstone in the inheritance and training of imperial power.

"You have made great progress in the past two years." The emperor sighed and said slowly: "I don't know if it's because of the age of maturity or Yun Rui has taught you a lot of things. The government and the public have recognized your identity as the prince, and I am very satisfied with your performance."

When Li Chengqian heard the word Yun Rui, the corners of his lips twitched, then he relaxed his heart, smiled with great courage, and said, "You asked me to follow my aunt to study political affairs, which will naturally have some effect."

The emperor was not angry, but said lightly: "The so-called political affairs, it's good to have the two great scholars Shu Hu teach you, but you know it. What I asked you to learn from Yun Rui is the art of power and strategy, looking around the world. I can never find a few better teachers than Yun Rui."

"How good it would be to go on like this." The emperor said softly: "There are still many things that cannot be learned. When I get old, you should have seen a lot of things. The last emperor's mind should be proficient. Only then can I feel at ease to pass on this country to you."

Li Chengqian was in a strange mood. Although he was the crown prince since childhood, his father was always strict with himself and lacked warmth, so he developed his cowardly nature. Although his temperament has changed a lot in the past two years, he sat with his father and told each other in a leisurely manner... but it seemed that this was the first time.

"An Zhi told me about the situation in Kyoto." The emperor said gently: "You performed well, and you performed well in the rebellion, but there were a few problems."

For the last time, Li Chengqian knelt beside the emperor as the prince and bowed to ask for advice.

"The dispute over the most powerful world requires no warmth or any fear. If He Zongwei leads the censor to disobey the court, you should be killed as a court stick."

The emperor's eyes were extremely cold: "An Zhi convinced the Chinese ministers of the court to fight with you at the throne ceremony, and you should kill him."

He looked at his son, as if he was teaching him for the last time, and said, "As long as someone is in front of the road and just kill him, you might as well be happy."

The emperor continued: "The two senior ministers of the Secretariat, and those civil servants, you don't kill them, but just keep them away. What effect can this play? This is the biggest mistake you made in Kyoto... If Yun Rui had handled this matter personally, instead of discussing with your mother, Kyoto might have been stable and the court was completely wiped out, and Fan Xian would not have delayed the launch time."

Li Chengqian smiled bitterly, sighed a long time, looked at his father and said softly, "Father, do you know why I can't bear to kill those ministers?"

Before the emperor could speak, Li Chengqian said quietly: "Maybe you forgot that when you were deliberately abolishing the crown prince... these old ministers bravely stood up, opposing your will, and stood behind me to support me... The child may not be a very powerful person, but a person who is grateful. Although the two great scholars of Hu Shu supported the child for the sake of the country, I... really can't bear to attack them."

The emperor remained silent, not knowing what was going on. After a while, he suddenly spoke, "When I decided to destroy you, there is still someone to save you."

Li Chengqian was shocked, and a picture appeared in his mind. On the way to Nanzhao, he had been following the green banner that had been vaguely following the mission, and said in a slight shock: "Fan Xian?"

He knew that Wang Shisanlang was Fan Xian's person, but he had never known why Fan Xian did this. Until the emperor pointed out at this time, he couldn't help but feel infinitely complicated emotions in his heart. He didn't know that the private affairs between him and the eldest princess were broken by Fan Xian. He repeatedly stumbled in his heart, and thought about the beginning of failure, Fan Xian was about to start to let himself escape from the palace, and was stunned for a moment.

The emperor narrowed his eyes and said, "An Zhi is a real person. He is like you, and occasionally he has a true temperament."

"I'm not as good as him." After a while of silence, the prince sighed, and then stood up. He bowed to the emperor very seriously and said solemnly: "Father, I have always been resentful to you. Today I can listen to my father's instructions, and my heart is much better... But before the child left, I said something... enough people in my family have died. Please be kind to these people who are alive in the future."

Kuangren means that the emperor's previous methods were too harsh, and the emperor's face suddenly became cold. But when he heard the three words before he left, for some reason, the emperor was not angry, but instead looked at Li Chengqian with an extremely complicated look and said slowly: "I agree to you."

A night breeze of early autumn poured in from the north of the imperial city, and whizzed by the quiet water along the palace corridor garden, adding a little sadness.

"Life, I... can be regarded as something has not happened." The emperor spoke and said something that surprised Li Chengqian.

A smirk appeared on Li Chengqian's face. He knew what kind of person his father was. The emperor valued his heart first. Since he had rebelled once, he would never be able to gain the trust of the other party again. What's more, the matter between him and his aunt had already killed the other party's rebellion scale, although why this was a rebellion scale. No one knew about it.

Li Chengqian would not take over the imprisonment for a lifetime. As a man from the Li family, he always had the courage to kill himself. His eyes calmed down and looked at the emperor and said softly: "What's the point of saying this at this time?"

"I asked before, how will this passage be recorded in history books?"

"Now we are rebels and rioters who are plotting to rebel. Everyone can punish them. Collude with foreign enemies and filth the palace... You are a dazzling king of the generation. You did nothing wrong, and you were everyone else's fault."

The emperor's face had returned to calmness, and he listened quietly to Li Chengqian's indifferent tone and heart-wrenching words.

"But you seem to have forgotten a little. No matter how it is applied in history books, you must remember that in the early autumn of the seventh year of Qingli, how many people died in Kyoto, the Li family died a grandmother, a queen, a eldest princess, and a prince."

Li Chengqian sighed, and for the first time he looked at his invincible father with an equality, even above him, and said, "You will be the eternal emperor in history books, and you are so clean around you, there is not a single person. Wouldn't you be lonely?"

The emperor looked at him coldly, without saying anything, and the corner of his lips chuckled slightly, as if indicating how could the gods above the nine heavens care about the loneliness on the top of the clouds and the lively life on earth?

Then he stood up and walked out of the gate of the East Palace. When he was at the gate of the palace, his heart moved slightly and took out a letter from his sleeve. The letter was the suicide note of the second prince, which was previously handed over to him by Gong Dian.

The emperor took out the thin piece of letter paper and saw what his second son wanted to tell him when he was dying.

There are two lines of extremely sloppy words on the letter paper, with dry thread on the pen and ink, which is obviously made of hasty, but the turning point is powerful, like a sword stabbing the back of the paper, full of anger and reluctance.

Emperor Qing threw the first whetstone to the court. The third prince Li Chengze shouted to his noble father in the last suicide note that he had similar meaning to the prince. However, the words were even more sharp and sharp, especially the four words at the end.

"Widowed! Widowed! Orphan! Alone!"

Old but without a wife is a widow, ruler is a widow, lose a mother alone is an orphan, old but without a child... is a solitary!

During the battle of Dadong Mountain, the Emperor of Qing defeated the two great masters of the world, luring out the restlessness in the royal family and the army, and picked out the thieves in the court, laying the great achievements of unifying the world in the future. This situation that had been constructed for decades became a reality, and it was undoubtedly the most glorious time of Emperor Qing's life.

However, the queen died, and the woman of that year had already died. The queen mother died. She had been with the emperor for twenty years and had spent her youth for him. She also died. The prince died and the second prince died. Everyone died.

Only one of the emperors was left, and one of them was left alone.

Emperor Qing looked at the letter coldly, his fingers trembled slightly, and the letter paper rustled into a pile of white powder, slid from his fingers, and was blown away by the autumn wind at the entrance of the East Palace, and it scattered everywhere, like a desolate snow.

A hint of pain flashed in his eyes. His brows were frowning very tightly. The words of his two sons before their death penetrated deeply into the king's heart. The white hair on the middle-aged man's temples became deeper and deeper, his eyes gradually became a little dim, and there seemed to be wetness in the corners of his eyes, but his body was still so tall and strong that he did not move at all.

The door of the East Palace was closed tightly again. No one knew what was happening inside, but everyone knew that the deposed prince Li Chengqian would definitely spend his last time in this deserted palace. But at some point, the bell of the palace rang again. Or it was disdainful, but just staring at his death coldly and ruthlessly.

The emperor dispersed all the servants, leaving Fan Xian alone with him, and walked silently towards the depths of the harem in the middle of the night. He passed the Chenlang, passed the cold palace, passed the wild grass, and came again to the small building where no one came for a long time.

The father and son did not climb the tower or see the portrait in the tower. The emperor just looked at the small building silently for a few glances, but then he resolutely turned around and walked along the path of autumn grass to the place where no one was left.

Fan Xian followed him silently three steps behind him. Deep in his heart, he felt heavy, without any false pretense, it was real heavy. He could vaguely guess His Majesty the Emperor's mood at this time. So many relatives died one after another, although these relatives were enemies he had to get rid of... But no one could get rid of the flesh and blood feelings.

Your Majesty is like a god, but he is still a person in the mortal world. Only the Supreme can forget his feelings. But if he is really the Supreme, why should he struggle in this world?

The successive deaths made Fan Xian feel depressed, not to mention the emperor. After all, this middle-aged man with a somewhat tired face was a father, a brother, a husband, and a son.

The two stood among the weeds without knees, maintaining tacit silence, looking at the quiet palace at night. The emperor did not speak, and Fan Xian naturally did not dare to speak, but just paid attention to his side expression carefully.

The emperor was silent for a long time and never spoke. At this moment, he had a lot of things to say to others, but Fan Xian was just his son.

"Go back to the palace."

"yes."

Fan Xian responded with a heavy expression. The emperor turned around and saw this expression. His heart was slightly dark. His feelings for this son became better. Coupled with the words the prince had said before, the emperor fell into deep thought again.

After pondering for a moment, the emperor waved his hand powerlessly and said, "If you are still uncomfortable, come to the palace to ask me."

Fan Xian was shocked. He knew what this sentence meant. When he was about to say something, he found that the emperor had turned around and left.

After returning to the imperial study room and having some midnight snacks, the emperor became a little tired. Fan Xian was about to leave the palace, but was stopped by the emperor. It seemed that he needed someone to accompany him at this time.

After a while, Eunuch Yao came in and said something softly. The emperor nodded and asked Fan Xian to go back to his house to rest and go to the palace to discuss matters tomorrow. Fan Xian took the order and came out, but in the corridor outside the door of the imperial study room, he heard an extremely familiar sound, the sound of a wheelchair rolling on the ground.

He knew that His Majesty was looking at him from behind. In the dim lights of Yu Yu's study, he showed a gentle look on his face. He bowed deeply to the old man in the wheelchair and said, "You are here."

Chen Pingping finally returned to Kyoto, returned to the palace, and returned to His Majesty the Emperor, just when His Majesty the Emperor was the loneliest and needed people the most.
Chapter completed!