Chapter 172 – A Hundred Years of Solitude
Fan Xian walked out of the East Palace, turned back to personally close the two heavy palace gates, and glanced at the dense crowd surrounding the East Palace, his face calm, but his heart rolling with unknown emotions. After calming down a bit, he waved to Eunuch Yao at the front of the crowd.
Eunuch Yao had accompanied His Majesty through the difficult times on the Great Eastern Mountain, and after Eunuch Hong had sacrificed his life for his country, he had naturally become the number one person in the court of Qing, but Fan Xian still waved casually as usual.
Eunuch Yao ricked his body and respectfully stepped forward to obey the order. Judging from his behavior, anyone would have no doubt that Fan Xian would have supreme power in the future.
Fan Xian whispered something in Eunuch Yao’s ear. Eunuch Yao looked slightly skeptical, not daring to question Fan Xian’s orders, but unable to consult His Majesty in the East Palace at the moment, and after a few moments of deliberation, he led a group of people from outside the East Palace to the periphery, keeping a long distance between the East Palace and Fan Xian.
Fan Xian also followed them to the side of the small forest in the palace, looking at the quiet East Palace from afar, guessing what His Majesty and the Crown Prince were talking about at the moment. Having these people in the palace retreat farther away was actually for safety’s sake; he didn’t know if the emperor, once he was in a fit of rage, would say something he never wanted anyone to know.
This was even more for his own consideration, because only a few people under the sky knew the real reason why His Majesty was bent on abolishing the Crown Prince, and this matter was originally woven by him. The emperor knew of his cultivation, and if he were to guard the outside of the Eastern Palace and hear about all the shady business in the palace palace exams, it wouldn’t be painful for anyone.
Fan Xian pursed his dry lips and looked at the Eastern Palace with worried eyes. He thought that Chengqian is soft on the outside and hard on the inside, and I’m afraid that he will have to walk the same path as the oldest two after all. Think carefully, in fact, this person is really a little complicated, the prince is forced to the end of the road is their own, just …… who could have thought that the state of affairs would be such a development. He and Chen Pingping secretly do those things, seem to drive wolves and quake tigers, not expected to end up in the earth to shake out a real dragon.
In a few years, all the people beside his majesty have passively or actively stood against him, and Chen Pingping and Fan Xian finally succeeded in turning his majesty into a loner. However, the lonely is lonely, the widow is widowed, but is still the world’s top one, and once the momentum of the exhaust, even to swallow the sun and the moon, so that Fan Xian can not help but feel cold fear.
The situation in the East Palace is not the same as Fan Xian’s guess. The Emperor and the Crown Prince had not fallen into some kind of hysterical family folk drama over the first few words. In the real imperial family, there would never be agitators like Ma Jingtao; there was only indifference, coldness, calmness, and coldness.
The emperor was very comfortable and casual sitting on the stone steps, his legs were extremely wide apart, looking at the door of the East Palace, thinking about many years ago, he was waiting for the good news of the Empress’s birth outside the palace gate. That day the palace was filled with joy, the Empress Dowager was exceptionally happy, but his own mood was more than a little grave on top of the joy.
Until the woman outside the palace, who was also pregnant, sent a letter, he was happy, knowing that the other party is really not the world’s average woman, has not even put the dragon chair in the heart, and did not think of seeking the seemingly tempting imperial throne for the child in his womb.
It was also this attitude that made the emperor vaguely unhappy. The past twenty years, this kind of unpleasantness has long become a forgotten emotion, only occasionally in the harem small building, looking at the painting of the yellow-shirted woman, he can not help but complain a few words, Anzhi is your child, is not my child?
Twenty years, that at birth is destined to become the successor to the throne of the Kingdom of Qing child has grown up, at this time is sitting beside him, full of long hair softly draped behind, eyebrows and eyes there is only calm and resignation.
The child in the womb of the woman outside the palace, at this time, but outside the East Palace, I do not know in which corner to stand, watching the movement of the East Palace.
The emperor subconsciously from the steps in front of the net a few, took the crown prince drank the cup of tea, sent to the lips and drank a mouthful, but do not know hot and cold.
“I, Daqing, have not been founded long after all.” I do not know why, the emperor chose to open from here, slowly said: “North Qi although only the second generation, but inherited the throne of Wei, the internal but to stabilize a lot. More than ten years ago, the Emperor of Northern Qi died violently, the Empress was young, and the Emperor’s son was young, if placed in my Daqing, I am afraid that that forced the palace will become …… even if Bitter Lotus intervenes.”
Li Chengqian’s gaze fell on his father’s hand holding the teacup.
“The reason for this is because my Daqing is originally from the sands to fight down the rivers and mountains, the military power is strong, used to reasoning with the sword, etiquette imperial authority these things, and not how to be able to convince people.” The emperor’s gaze was somewhat indifferent, “So to be the monarch of my Daqing, it is not just a matter of being lenient, one must have iron blooded means and a tough heart.”
He turned his head to look at his son and said, “You grew up in the palace since you were young, but at the age of eight, you had a benevolent name ……,” said the emperor’s lips revealed a hint of ridicule, “but it was just to help a few injured rabbits to wrap their feet The emperor’s lips showed a hint of ridicule, “but to help a few injured rabbits to wrap their feet, those lackeys will be bent on pleasing the queen mother, saying that you will certainly be a benevolent ruler in the future.”
“A flavor of leniency is cowardice, and I will be a great Qing Dynasty will unify the world, fifty years of the world’s constant strife, all over the old royal family will not be convinced, half a hundred years of age, but to lay the foundation of 10,000 years of …… I only had time to fight this river and mountain, guarding this river and mountain but to rely on you.” The emperor retracted his gaze and said, “A benevolent ruler, a cowardly ruler, how to keep this ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains?”
Li Chengqian glanced at his father, the corners of his lips showed a hint of self-deprecating smile, then he realized that his father was already thinking about what would happen in a few decades as early as more than ten years ago, he had the confidence to unify the world, but he had to think about the situation of how to continue this river and mountain after a hundred years.
“That’s why I raised Chengze out to fight you in the ring.” The emperor closed his eyes and slowly said, “Now that I think about it, the two of you were still young at that time, and I seemed to be a bit too hasty.”
Li Chengqian still did not open his mouth to answer.
“This also wants to see Chengze this child can have a good result, but …… however a year, I can see that his heart is too hypocritical. As an emperor when there is the austere atmosphere, and he …… does not.” The emperor still closed his eyes, as if recounting a distant story, “So I firmly passed the idea of the Jiangshan to you. Just in those years, your performance is really disappointing to me, lingering in the flower house, night and day, and making your body and bones unrecognizable.”
Li Chengqian smiled to himself, finally slowly opened his mouth, “Father, I was only 14 or 15 years old, the first time I realized the personnel, thought you want to abolish me, night and night fear, also had to find some feelings in the powder pile.”
Some surprisingly, the emperor listened to this, and did not how angry, but instead is a smile and said: “Chengze is too restless, but he is smart, finally see clearly how I really think in my heart, but he has come out, also had to continue to go. In this respect, your second brother is considered to have a deep understanding of my heart.”
“The knife may be sharpened, but without sharpening, it can never be sharp.” The emperor opened his eyes, calmly looked at his son, and said, “The second did not sharpen you, but instead blunted you, just as An Zhi entered Kyoto ……”
Li Chengqian smiled, thinking of the first time he saw Fan Xian outside of the other courtyard. At that time, as the crown prince, how had he ever regarded this son of the minister in his eyes, who knew that this son of the minister, in the end, became his own brother, and became the hardest whetstone in the honing for the succession of the imperial power.
“You have made great progress in these two years.” The emperor sighed and slowly said, “I don’t know if it’s because you’ve matured by your age, or Yun Rui has taught you many things, the court and the public have all recognized your identity as the crown prince, and you’ve behaved in a way that makes me very satisfied.”
Hearing the word Yun Rui, Li Chengqian’s lips couldn’t help but twitch for a moment, then he let go of his heart, and with great courage smiled slightly and said, “You let me follow my aunt to learn about politics, naturally there are some effects.”
The emperor did not get angry, just said lightly: “The so-called political affairs, there are Shu Hu two university professors to teach you will be good. In fact, you are also clear, I let you follow Yun Rui to learn, is the art of power. Looking around the world, can no longer find a few better teachers than Yun Rui.”
“How good it would be to just go on like this.” The emperor said softly, “There are still a lot of things that can’t be learned, and when I am old, you should have seen a lot of things, and the last of the emperor’s mind should be pure. At that time, I will be assured that I will pass this kingdom to you.”
Li Chengqian’s mood was a bit strange. Although he was the crown prince since he was young, his father had always been more than stern and lacking in warmth towards himself, which was why he had developed his own timid nature. Although these two years his own temperament changed a lot, but and the father and the emperor such a companion and sit, felicitous mutual description …… but still seems to be the first time.
“Anzhi will be the situation in Kyoto are told to me.” The emperor said gently, “Your performance was good, and you behaved decently during the rebellion. There are just a few problems.”
Li Chengqian, for the last time as the Crown Prince, knelt at the side of the Emperor and bowed for advice.
“The battle for the world’s supreme power does not require any warmth or scruples. He Zongwei led the imperial historian to disobey orders in court, you should be caned in court.”
The emperor’s gaze was cold and unimaginable, “An Zhi persuaded the court’s civil ministers to fight you at the enthronement ceremony, you should lay hands on him and kill him.”
He looked at his son, as if teaching him for the last time, and said, “As long as someone is in the way, just kill them. In this, you are not as good as Anzhi.”
The emperor went on to say, “The two great scholars under the door and in the middle book, as well as those civil ministers, you don’t kill them but only shut them down, what purpose can this serve? This is the Kyoto matter, you made the biggest mistake …… if it is Yun Rui personally deal with this matter, rather than you and the mother and the queen of the discussion to do, perhaps the Kyoto has long been stabilized, the dynastic hall of blood washed away, Fan Xian simply can not drag to launch the time.”
Li Chengqian smiled bitterly to himself, let out a long sigh, looked at his father and emperor and said softly, “Father, do you know why I couldn’t bear to kill those ministers?”
Not waiting for the emperor to open his mouth, Li Chengqian said quietly, “Perhaps you have forgotten, at the beginning of your intention to abolish the reserves …… is that these old ministers bravely stood out against your will, standing behind me to support me …… child perhaps Not a very strong person, but a person who knows the favor of repayment, although Hu Shu two university professors are for the sake of the throne of the country and support the child, but I am …… really can not bear to lay hands on them.”
The emperor is silent, do not know is thinking about some problems, after a long time, suddenly opened his mouth and said, “I am determined to abolish your time, there are people in the salvage for you.”
Li Chengqian was startled, then a picture came to his mind, on the way to Nanzhao, the green streamer that had been vaguely following the legation, slightly startled, he opened his mouth and said, “Fan Xian?”
He knew that Wang XIII Lang was Fan Xian’s man, but had been unclear as to why Fan Xian had done so, until the emperor pointed it out at this time, his heart could not help but well up with infinite complex emotions. He did not know that the private matter between himself and the eldest princess was poked and prodded by Fan Xian, smacking his lips repeatedly in his heart and associating it with the beginning of the defeat, Fan Xian was ready to proceed to let himself escape from the palace, and for a moment he could not help but be baffled.
The emperor narrowed his eyes slightly and said, “Anzhi is a real person, with you in general, occasionally have true feelings.”
“I am not as good as him.” After a long time of silence, the crown prince sighed a long sigh, then he stood up, extremely serious to the emperor kowtowed a head, solemnly said, “Father, the child’s heart to you have always had a grudge, today can listen to the father’s emperor admonition, the heart is also a lot better …… just the child before he went to have a sentence …… family has died enough, but also please father in the future on the living these people more lenient.”
Kuanren, meaning naturally that the emperor’s past methods are too harsh. The emperor’s face instantly became cold, but when he heard these three words before he left, for some reason, the emperor did not get angry, instead, he looked at Li Chengqian with an extremely complicated look, and slowly opened his mouth and said, “I shall promise you.”
A night wind of early fall, from the north of the imperial city poured in, along the palace corridors garden still water whistling past, adding a few points of sadness.
“Live, I …… can pretend that certain things have not happened.” The emperor opened his mouth and said a word that made Li Chengqian incomparably surprised.
A tragic smile appeared on Li Chengqian’s face. He knew what kind of person his father was, the emperor’s first priority was to look at the heart, and since he had rebelled once, he would never be able to gain the other party’s trust again. What’s more, between himself and his aunt, has already poked each other’s scales, although why this is a piece of scales, no one always knows.
A lifetime of seclusion, Li Chengqian will not accept, as a man of the Li family, the courage to kill himself is always there. His gaze calmed down, looked at the emperor and said softly, “At this time and then say such words, what is the meaning?”
“Earlier, I asked how exactly this section would be recorded in the history books.”
“Now we are the rebellious rebels, everyone gets to kill, colluding with foreign enemies, filthily disrupting the court …… You are the glorious generation of kings, you have done nothing wrong, and what is wrong is someone else’s.”
The emperor’s face has returned to calm, quietly listening to Li Chengqian these tone indifferent, but sound into the bone words.
“But you seem to have forgotten one point. No matter how the history books are scribbled, but always remember how many people died in Kyoto during this month in the early fall of the seventh year of the Qingli calendar, the Li family lost a grandmother, an empress, a first princess, a crown prince, and an imperial son.”
Li Chengqian sighed, and for the first time looked at his invincible father and emperor with an equal, even overriding gaze, and said, “You will be the emperor of a thousand years in the books of history, and you are surrounded by such cleanliness, so clean that there is no one at all, won’t you be lonely?”
The emperor looked at him indifferently and said nothing, with a slight smile at the corners of his lips, as if to indicate that a god who was above the nine heavens would not care about the loneliness on the top of the clouds or the bustle of the earth.
Then he stood up and walked out of the entrance of the Eastern Palace. With a slight twitch of his heart when he was at the palace gate, he took out a letter from his sleeve, which was the second prince’s last letter, previously handed over to him by the Palace Dictionary.
The emperor took out the thin letter paper, to see his second son in the dying, in fact want to tell himself what.
On the letter paper were two lines of incomparable scribbles, pen and ink with withered silk, obviously made in haste, however, the twists and turns are powerful, like a sword piercing the back of the paper, full of anger and resentment.
Emperor Qing threw to the court of the first whetstone, the second prince Li Chengze, in the last testament to their own high father shouted similar to the meaning of the crown prince, only with words but more piercing, more acerbic, especially at the end of the four words.
“Widower! Widowed! Lonely! Alone!”
Old and no wife is a widower, the King’s Landing no one close is a widow, the loss of the mother alone to survive is a lone, old and no son …… is a sole!
The great east mountain extends Kyoto a campaign, the emperor of Qing Guo even broke the world two great masters, induced to clear the royal family within the army and the restless factor, pick out the court in the shady thieves, in one fell swoop, laid the future unification of the world’s great feats. This great situation that had been woven for decades became a reality, and it was undoubtedly the most glorious time in Emperor Qing’s life.
However, the Empress is dead, the woman of that year has long been dead, the Empress Dowager is dead, the Princess who accompanied the Emperor for twenty years and gave her youthful years for him is also dead, the Crown Prince is dead, the Second Prince is dead, all of them are dead.
Only the emperor was left alone, alone.
Emperor Qing looked at the letter indifferently, his fingers trembling slightly. The letter paper rustled into a pile of white powder, slipping down from between his fingers, and when blown by the autumn wind at the entrance of the Eastern Palace, it rolled around and scattered, like a bleak snow.
His eyes flashed with a hint of hidden pain, and his brows were furrowed extremely tightly. The words of his two sons before their deaths pierced deeply into the heart of this monarch, and the gray hair on his temples became deeper and deeper, his gaze gradually dimmed a bit, and the corners of his eyes seemed to have a dampness in them. However, his body is still as upright, strong and motionless.
The door of the East Palace is once again tightly closed, no one knows what happened inside. But everyone knew that the last days of the abrogated prince Li Chengqian would inevitably be spent in this cold and clear palace, just don’t know when, the palace bells rang again, or did not bother to ring, but just indifference and mercilessly watched his death.
The emperor dispersed all of his subordinates, leaving Fan Xian alone to accompany him as he traveled in silence towards the depths of the late night harem. The road passed through the Cinnabar Corridor, through the Cold Palace, through the sprawling weeds, and once again came to the front of the small building where no one had come for a long time.
Father and son did not climb the building, did not go to see the portrait in that building. The emperor just silently looked at that side of the small building for a few eyes, and then resolutely turned around and walked away, along the path of autumn grass, to no one’s place.
Fan Xian followed three steps behind him in silence, his heart was heavy, no need to disguise, it was really heavy. Vaguely, he could guess the emperor s mood at this time, so many relatives died one after another, although these relatives are the enemies he must get rid of …… but the love of flesh and blood, no one can get rid of.
His Majesty is like a heavenly god, but is still a person in the mortal world, too high up can forget, but if it is really true, why should it be necessary to struggle and struggle within this world?
The successive deaths made Fan Xian’s mood depressing, not to mention the emperor, no matter how, this middle-aged man with a somewhat tired face, he was after all a father, a brother, a husband, a son.
The two stood in the middle of the knee-high grass, maintaining a tacit silence. Looking at the quiet palace at night, the emperor did not open his mouth to speak, Fan Xian naturally dared not open his mouth, just cautiously paying attention to the expression on his side.
The emperor was silent for a long time, never opening his mouth, he had a lot of words in his heart at this time that he wanted to say to someone, but Fan Xian was only his son.
“Return to the palace.”
“Yes.”
Fan Xian responded, his face heavy. The emperor turned around and happened to see this look, his heart slightly dimmed, and he felt more and more good about this son, along with the words the crown prince had said earlier, he couldn’t help but make the emperor fall into contemplation once again.
Contemplating for but a moment, the emperor waved his hand somewhat feebly and said, “If your body is still uncomfortable, come into the palace and ask me.”
Fan Xian’s heart was startled, knowing what the words represented, and when he was about to say something, he realized that the emperor had already turned around and left.
After returning to the imperial study and having some late night snacks, the emperor became a bit tired. Fan Xian wanted to leave the palace, but was stopped by the emperor, as if he desperately needed the company of someone at this time.
After a while, Eunuch Yao came in and whispered something, and the emperor nodded and told Fan Xian to go back to his home to rest, and then come back to the palace tomorrow to discuss the matter. Fan Xian took the order and went out, but on the long corridor outside the door of the imperial study, he heard an extremely familiar sound, the sound of a wheelchair rolling on the ground.
He knew that his majesty was watching him from behind, and in the dim light of the imperial study, he showed a gentle face, bowed deeply to the old man in the wheelchair, and said, “You have come.”
Chen Pingping finally returned to Kyoto, returned to the Imperial Palace, returned to His Majesty’s side, just when His Majesty was the loneliest and most in need of someone.
The imperial study was quiet, the emperor looked at his most loyal subjects, his most intimate friends, his most reliable comrades, closed his eyes and said, “I …… have pushed these sons too hard.”