Chapter 477: The 19th Year of Zhaowu
Qin Li is already the prince. If he is promoted to him, what official title should he be given? No one dares to say it, but everyone dares to think about it.
And even more intriguing is that all adult princes are rewarded... except for the prince. Looking at the prince who is forced to smile, people not only speculate: "Is the prince out of favor?"
Based on these two clues, a terrible conclusion is about to come out: Your Majesty wants Yi Chu, right?
The atmosphere in the room became weird. People secretly looked at the two princes sitting opposite each other, hoping to capture some clues from their faces to confirm their speculation.
Just as this malicious speculation was about to spread, an old and majestic voice sounded: "Crown Prince, come here."
Hearing this voice, the prince, who had been gritting his teeth and forcing him, suddenly felt a sore throat in the tip of his nose and a drop of tears fell.
Then he put away Qi Rong, got up and walked quickly to the jade steps, pushed the golden mountain and turned the jade pillar, and knelt in front of the empress dowager.
"The prince is half-monarch, and his identity is different from your brothers, so the emperor's grandmother will reward you." The old empress dowager said with a smile, then took off the rosary on her wrist and said softly: "This string of Buddhist beads is blessed by the emperor's grandmother for decades. It can ward off evil spirits and calm down. Prince, please take it away."
The prince kowtowed three times hard, took it with his trembling hands, and choked and said, "Grandson thanked the emperor and grandmother." The so-called warding off evil and calming one's mind is exactly what he needs most.
The old empress dowager nodded and smiled, "Get up, good boy." In fact, the empress dowager's view of the prince has not changed at all, but he cannot let the emperor suppress the prince. The current prince is just a shield. If he falls, Qin Lei will inevitably stand on the front line of the struggle for the throne. The time is obviously not yet ripe, so Empress Dowager Wenzhuang wants to protect the prince.
Becoming an emperor was only the minimum requirement for Qin Lei by the old empress dowager. She hoped that he could do something great and create a big situation for the Qin royal family, which was the purpose of the old empress dowager. She didn't want to see Qin Lei spend too much energy on infighting, so that he became the second Emperor Zhaowu.
So she hopes that Qin Lei can end the domestic struggle in a decisive way and focus on internal and foreign wars. How to do this? Only by keeping the prince from falling, Qin Lei will have a relatively relaxed development environment and have a more full opportunity to accumulate strength. Only when the outbreak can he achieve the four words "decisive way"!
This is the plan of Empress Dowager Wenzhuang.
The prince then raised his head and looked at Emperor Zhaowu. He saw that although he had no expression on his face, his long and narrow eyebrows were beating slightly. After the prince had been with the emperor for a long time, how could he not know that this was a sign of his anger in his heart?
But I didn't care about so much, so I couldn't kill me just by slaughtering me, right? The prince saluted the queen mother solemnly again, stood up, returned to his seat and sat down, looking at the eldest prince like a cockfight.
Seeing that the Empress Dowager came out halfway and disrupted his own good show, Emperor Zhaowu, who was unable to do so, was relieved and bowed to Empress Dowager Wenzhuang to say goodbye. Everyone stood up and greeted His Majesty the Emperor.
Before he got up, he heard a crisp sound of "crack" as if something had fallen to the ground. People looked in the sound and couldn't help but take a breath... They saw that the imperial sika deer that had been placed on the eldest prince's desk had already landed on the ground and fell to pieces!
Emperor Zhaowu also saw this scene and his face suddenly became extremely ugly.
The eldest prince quickly left the seat, kowtowed and apologized: "When my son stood up, he accidentally swept the treasure given to him. He deserves to die. Please punish him!"
Emperor Zhaowu narrowed his eyes and stared at Qin Li coldly for a while. Finally, he resisted the ignorance and left angrily.
Everyone was either full of regret or gloating at His Highness and his broken deer, thinking everything in their hearts. But no one thought that he actually did it on purpose...
Empress Dowager Wenzhuang glanced at the eldest prince deeply, and also stood up with the help of the queen, slowly left the hall, and went back to the warm-up hall to rest.
Seeing that the Lord left, many people also returned home for the New Year. As for whether there were any people who stayed to drink, the princes had their own worries and didn't know...
Qin Li picked up a piece of fragment from the ground, put it into his sleeve, then stood up and left with his head raised.
Qin Ting carefully put the beads given by the Empress Dowager on his right wrist and also left.
The third and fourth brothers looked at each other and left with their own rewards, obviously looking for a place to practice alone.
Lao Qi rubbed his eyes and said to Concubine Jin: "Mother, I'm sleepy." Concubine Jin took Qin Xiao back with this excuse.
Lao Liu originally wanted to take this opportunity to get close to all the relatives, but when he saw all the brothers leaving, he felt a little in conflict with him for a while and got up and left.
By the way, others don’t bother to stay here. If I don’t leave, wouldn’t I look down on me?
The royal brothers spent the last day of the eighteenth year of Zhaowu like this.
The next day is the new year.
Before dawn, Ruolan got up and arranged the first meal of the New Year. According to convention, all the black guards and subordinates of the royal palace would come to kowtow to the prince early, and Qin Lei had to pay attention to these guys' meals, which meant that they had no worries about food and clothing.
Because there were too many people coming and there was no time to prepare other food, the royal mansion kneaded the dough, rolled the dough, chopped the filling, and wrapped tens of thousands of "prison balls" the day before... Qin Lei had changed it to dumplings. In this way, just put it directly into the pot in the morning, saving time and effort, which became the custom of the mansion and continued.
At the time of Mao, Qin Lei also got up. He was carried back last night, but Ruolan was frightened. It was not until Qin Lei pulled her to the bed that she realized that the bluffing prince was lying again.
A few times a night of spring, but I can only be so enchanting.
Under the careful service of the palace maids, Qin Lei's whole body was refreshed and walked to the outside room with a refreshing spirit, waiting for his subordinates to come to pay New Year's greetings.
After a while, the first New Year greeting came to the door, which was Guantao. He was wearing a new green cloth robe and his head was clean and neat, which was rare.
Qin Lei shouted: "It must be in love!"
Guantao smiled bitterly and said, "That's good, it's my mother's care." After that, he wanted to kowtow to him and wish him a happy New Year, but Qin Lei grabbed him and said sincerely, "Sir, I have great contributions to your hard work. I feel ashamed of your worship."
Guantao laughed and said, "I'd better pay a visit today, otherwise the boss will not care about the food." Qin Lei just let him go and did not persist.
After Guantao finished the ceremony, Qin Lei smiled and handed out the red envelope and said, "You have to hide it closely."
Guantao smiled and took it with both hands, stuffed it into his cotton jacket and said, "I feel guilty." Of course, he just said that, and didn't want to return a few.
Immediately afterwards, Shi Yong and Shi Meng also came, so naturally they each had red envelopes after kowtowing, so there was no need to repeat them.
When Le Buyi arrived, basically all the people were all there. More than a hundred large tables were sitting inside and outside the house, and even the patio was full of people. Ruolan arranged a meal to have dinner, one person and a large bowl of hot noodles dumplings and a plate of Laba garlic. As the saying goes, "Dumplings are wine, the more you eat, the more you eat it," naturally there is a special brew of "Wuliangchun" from the Rongjun Farm is indispensable.
Qin Lei also sat down next to Le Buyi, Guantao and others, ate two dumplings and said with a smile: "This is another year."
Guantao also sighed with emotion: "Yes, it's the fourth year of coming to Daqin in a blink of an eye."
"Time flies so fast." Qin Lei chewed a Laba garlic and chewed: "But our development is not slow either."
Guantao said proudly: "Yes, no matter from any aspect, our palace is on the right track. As long as we are given three more years, we will be really not afraid of wind and rain."
Le Buyi sucked the wine in his mouth, narrowed his eyes and shook his head, "It's impossible, it's not the same as me. The 19th year of Zhaowu will be a very difficult year, not only our palace, but also the entire Qin Dynasty."
Guantao also said sadly: "Yes, the war is about to begin. When will it be?"
"If the Qi-Chu Alliance had not been broken, the war would probably start once it was thawed," Le Buyi said, "The State of Qi needs to arrange at least 600,000 troops on the front line to achieve a stable victory. Zhao Wujiu never fought unprepared battles, so he would definitely get this number. He could have drawn the garrison from the south to participate in the war, but now he can only give up."
Qin Lei nodded and said, "So they have to mobilize troops from all over the country, but because the new policy is too exploited by the people of Qi, the people are unstable and riots are very prone to. Therefore, all regions must maintain considerable force to suppress them. In this way, Zhao Wujiu has to train new recruits first and then draw veterans." He also gave a dumpling to his mouth and said, "It is expected that the time will be delayed by about two to three months."
"That's before and after the Medicago?" Guantao whispered softly. He now devoted all his energy to government affairs and had no time to care about military information.
"It must be like this." Le Buyi smiled and said, "Sun Tzu said, 'A wise general is about to eat the enemy. If you eat the enemy for one bell, you should be twenty bells." Zhao Wujiu is the most wise general in the world, so he will naturally enter our country before the summer harvest."
Qin Lei put down his chopsticks and whispered to Guantao: "This year, you should pay attention that the stall cannot be too big. You mainly focus on the 'Sanhe Agricultural Reclamation'. You must see results next year." The so-called Sanhe Agricultural Reclamation refers to the land reclamation and farming projects in the three major basins of Xiaoqing River, Jingshui River and Tonghe Canal.
Guantao smiled bitterly and said, "I was originally hoping to build fifteen more schools and sixty shops this year."
"Just slow down and serve the war." Qin Lei smiled and comforted: "And we stockpiled so much food last year, and the next thing we can do is sell food to support it for a few years."
"Haha," Guantao couldn't help but smile and said, "Your Majesty is going to make money in war."
Qin Lei smiled and said, "War is just burning money, and this money cannot be made by others."
The few people stopped after a few simple words. After all, today is the New Year, and it is indeed inappropriate to talk about government affairs.
Qin Lei wanted to pick up some relaxed and happy words, the unethical and smoking guy from Coke Buyi did not want him to be quiet. He cried with Qin Lei and said with a smile: "I heard that the prince is very happy."
The smile on Qin Lei's face suddenly solidified. He swallowed the last dumpling hard, patted his chest, and said guiltily: "How come you know everything?"
"It spread last night." Le Buyi laughed and said, "You can finally realize Princess Shang's long-cherished wish."
"When did I have such a long-cherished wish?" Qin Lei said angrily. His voice was a little high, and immediately attracted the attention of other tables.
The subordinates all looked at the inquiry to see what can be done to gossip.
"Everyone turned around," Qin Lei said angrily: "I didn't eat enough and I wanted it, but I didn't want it."
Today is the Spring Festival. No matter how bad the temper is, I don’t get angry this day. So those guys are much more courageous than usual. They laughed and said, “I’m full.”
"Get out when you're full!" Qin Lei rolled his eyes and said, "What should I do?"
Everyone realized that empiricism killed people! The prince didn't pay attention to it at all... he had to stand up and say goodbye with a smile. Le Buyi wanted to discuss it in depth with Qin Lei, but he forced him to retreat with a murderous look.
After sending away a bunch of shrimp soldiers and crab generals, Qin Lei was also in trouble. What should we do? You should know that the marriage is an organizational arrangement, and it is all arranged by elders. The one who wants to marry a wife is waiting for that day, and someone will pull it like a puppet, kowtow and kowtow, and then you can get a wedding chamber.
During this process, no matter how strong the personal intention is, no one will pay attention to it. So Qin Lei just wanted to resist and didn't know how to resist.
'You might as well give it a little bit? Anyway, the princess is so good.' Qin Lei rubbed her chin and said to herself. After saying that, she denied herself: "No, if you put this god at home and where can you put Yun Shang and Shi Yun?" He was puzzled and his highness, Prince Longwei, hugged his head and moaned, "God, save me, just give me a wife! Why do you need so much?"
"Prince, you are here to wish you a happy new year." Shi Gan said softly.
"I haven't seen you, aren't you angry?" Qin Lei squatted on the chair, counting his toes while he was not feeling well.
Shi Gan had no choice but to retreat and prepare to send all the lords away. As soon as he walked to the door, he heard the prince ask rudely: "Who are they?"
"Qu Zhongtang, Wang Zhongtang, Tian Zhongtang, five great ministers, Qin Shangshu, Qian Shangshu, Wei Shangshu, Li Shangshu, Gongshu, Gongshu," Shi Gan said softly.
Qin Lei jumped off the chair and thrust Shi Gan's forehead hard: "Can you not be so luxurious lineup excited? Take the way quickly." Shi Gan covered his head and led the prince to the front hall.
"Forgive me for my sins, I'm late." Hearing Qin Lei's hearty laughter, the eight adults quickly stood up and bowed together to salute.
"Sit down, sir, don't be polite." Qin Lei sat down with a smile, and then the sirs then put half of their butts down.
After a brief glance, half of the country in the court was in this room.
Seeing the prince's opinion, Qu Yanwu smiled and said, "This year is the first Spring Festival in the cabinet. After a few bachelors have decided to pay New Year's greetings to Your Majesty and Your Highness in turn to show the respect our court officials for the royal family."
Qin Lei laughed in his heart. These guys were obviously selling dog meat by the sheep. Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, they looked for alliances everywhere.
He remained silent and smiled faintly: "So you guys have already been to my brothers' mansion?"
Tian Minnong nodded and smiled, "When I went to the palace of Your Highness, I met the old lieutenant." Among these people, he and Qu Yanwu were the oldest, so they talked.
Qin Lei ordered the tea to look at the tea and chuckled, "Isn't the Taiwei bedridden?"
"Maybe it's restored," Tian Minnong smiled bitterly, "The Grand Marshal is very energetic and has been talking to us for a long time, otherwise he would have come here early."
Chapter completed!