Chapter 118 Black and white to buy peace
Compared to the palace of Tai’an City, which seems to be like the nine heavenly queens, the palace city of Northern Mang is really like a child’s playground, and cannot withstand the leggy eunuchs who are a few times distracted. Big eunuch Sun Ding Sheng every time he stood in a slightly higher position overlooking the palace, will feel some regret, his identity and Han Diaoji roughly equivalent, but the royal court of North Mang is not excited about the eunuchs, the palace city full of more than 3,000, not as much as the South court, which makes Sun Ding Sheng is very bored, the female emperor dying to change the itinerary, canceled to go to the South court’s imperial patrol, more so that it is not easy to go out of the palace to take a breath of Sun Ding Sheng secretly annoyed, but when the He was secretly waiting at the palace gate today, saw the old scholar and the man with the sword, guessed the identity, couldn’t help but draw a breath of cold air, and then only felt a great honor to come, smile more and more respectful and sincere, and didn’t dare to say more than a word, silently led the two to walk into the palace. Unexpectedly or that honored guest took the initiative to speak warmly, “Sun chief, body bones can be okay?”
Sun Ding Sheng was flattered, he only met with the old man more than ten years ago, at that time he was only a role in the eunuchs pivot, not to mention that the eunuchs in Northern Mang have no authority to speak of, how to dare to hope to be remembered by this old man’s face, not to mention the family name. Sun Ding Sheng has been carefully walking in front, but can only pull away from the distance of half a step hastily stooped a few more points, softly laughed: “Back to the words of the Taiping order, we are okay, life is His Majesty’s, do not dare to get sick indiscriminately to go. Taiping order color is also good, this is the North Mang’s luck.”
The old Confucian laughed, “Mr. Sun, I’m borrowing your good advice.”
Sun Ding Sheng bent over to lead the way, laughing: “How dare how dare.”
The old Confucian point to point, no longer polite pleasantries, hands inserted into the sleeves, squinting at some unfamiliar palace city, picking up the steps, past the vermilion door, down the steps, is the main hall outside the jade square, up and down, such as the ups and downs of life how similar. The old Confucian scholar looked back at his junior five steps away, and said with some guilt, “It caused you not to be able to compete with Teng Tai’a in the sword.”
The middle-aged swordsman shook his head, hesitated, and said, “Sir has nine questions. I only have one question, Ask.”
“Ask about the Way of the Sword?”
“Ask.”
“The reduction of one word makes a difference of ten thousand miles. Well said, Teng Tai’a underestimated you.”
Negative sword middle-aged man in the North Mang royal court for a long time, sword qi near, this word name is really worthy of the name can not be, Li Mi Pil so deeply valued by the empress of the power, a hand almost mastered all the dynasty’s shady forces of the bloody hitman, in the past ten years in a number of times by the sword house master sneak attack assassination, there is the royal tent of the power of the emperor teased Zhu sprites over the years to be able to continue to improve, have to be grateful to the sword qi near to be good at finding the loopholes. Sword qi near is a very boring man, looks uninteresting, character uninteresting, that common name has long been replaced by the name of the word, in addition to practicing the sword, there is no interest to speak of, not close to the female sex, not close to the power, not close to the mouth of the fast, only close to the sword. However, Li Mi Pil for this repeatedly unrepentant even the empress of His Majesty’s wrath of life and death enemy, evaluation is quite high, said the sword qi close to the sword qi, but also only show six or seven points, because he only allowed himself to lose his own merits, did not hold the interest of killing to compensate for life. Li Chun Gang said when he was young that North Mang had no sword, and Deng Tai’a also said that North Mang did have no sword after he achieved the Sword Immortal realm, and North Mang had thought that the Lord of the Sword House would intercept the Peach Blossom Sword God, not to mention defeating Deng Tai’a, at least, he had to retract that statement, but Sword Qi Near was a big disappointment and never showed up, and it seems that in this person’s eyes, escorting the old Confucian scholar to the north into the palace is more important than anything else.
Sun Ding Sheng slightly accelerated his steps.
North Mang royal court in front of the main hall of the goat fat jade steps have nine, a woman with a cold face stood high above the steps.
A bright yellow, dragon robe was added.
The old Confucian scholar smiled and said, “Almost there.”
Immediately about to face the saint, face to face with that woman with the richest prestige under the sky, the old man even had the leisure to turn his head and asked, “Huang Qing, after today, you go to trip to Li Yang Dynasty, it can’t be that the Northern Mang knows all about Li Chun Gang Deng Tai’a, but the Li Yang doesn’t know that Huang Qing also has a sword.”
Sword Qi nearly nodded, and almost together with the Grand Eunuch Sun Ding Sheng, he began to stop walking, no longer moving forward.
The old man continued onward, not bowing in prostration toward that Emperor’s Majesty, and the empress, who was known for her eloquence, did not ask questions, but just did not walk down the steps either, not even a single step.
The old Confucian scholar raised his head to look at her.
The empress face old, eyebrows and eyes vaguely visible when young is indeed a beautiful woman, no one on the side of the waiting, standing alone on the steps, coldly looking at the year when the negative anger left Beimang’s order of peace. Silence for a long time, she finally showed a smile, opened his mouth and said: “According to your requirements in the palace have been done, start?”
The old Confucian was not polite, walked up the first step, took off the book case, raised his hand and waved.
Nearly two hundred hold satin such as the painting axis of the palace maids eunuchs in order to fish into the square on the left and right sides of the knees to put satin paintings, bowed their heads and walked backwards, each pulling up a long banner, without exception, are in the center of the square at the back to back to meet on.
The empress suddenly narrowed her eyes and looked at the square.
Hundreds of satin into a giant painting.
It is a map of the North Mang and Liyang Dynasties, so detailed that it includes every military town, every major river, and every major vein.
The world is under my feet.
So the empress subconsciously stepped out of the first step, walked to the eighth step, standing high to see far, but her ambition since the first day of the palace, more than just look at it?
Two dynasties of rivers and mountains are beautiful.
The waves are magnificent.
North Mang Dynasty geographic contours written in white characters on a black background, away from the Yang Dynasty boundaries in black characters on a white background.
A chessboard and a game of chess.
Black and white facing each other.
The Empress smiled and said, “The Order of the Peace has always been good at chess, but today is it going to be a game of deduction for me? Want me to walk with you on top of this river and mountain?”
The old Confucian did not answer, and waited for those meticulous sweaty female officials and eunuchs to quietly withdraw from the square, opened the book case, picked up a bamboo pole and a few pieces of black charcoal, sat down on his butt, raised his head and said, “Your Majesty doesn’t need to get off the stage for the time being, today allow me to first talk about the timing of the day, the place, the people, the people, and the harmony. Tomorrow then detail my years in the Central Plains Spring and Autumn to see the geography of the people and military power and customs. On the third day, I will talk about the border between the two dynasties, only to solve the urgent problem. On the fourth day, I will talk about the specific matters of my dynasty and how to win the hearts of the scholars and the people. On the fifth day, said how to destroy the northern Liang accounted for the western Sichuan swallowed the southern imperial decree, the sixth day, said the spearhead pointed directly at the city of Tai’an, the final leveling of the world. On the seventh day, then say how to govern the kingdom.”
Rao is the empress through the storms and falls, heard this can be said to swallow the world like a tiger’s bold words, also froze for a moment.
She walked down one step and also followed the example of Taiping, who made the old Confucian scholar sit on the ground.
The old man first put down the charcoal that will be used later to draw the eyes of the dragon, hands on the bamboo poles used in the past to climb mountains and wade in the water, has long been rubbed smooth and clean, looking toward the square, calmly said: “Huang Longshi said that the world’s situation, divided for a long time will be united for a long time will be divided, deep in my heart. At the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period, the Liyang dynasty destroyed eight countries, holding the momentum of the victory of the northern conquest of my dynasty, seemingly unstoppable, but do not know a drum after the manpower has poor time, Liyang tired troops to fight the north, although the northern Mang is said to be to wait for the labor of the day, but at the beginning of his majesty only ascended to the throne of the nine and a half years, the situation is unstable, they do not hesitate to risk their lives, and strive for an exceptionally difficult to not win and not to lose. In fact, at that time the time is still on the side of Liyang, but the geographic situation of the North Mang and the Central Plains is very different, resulting in four hundred thousand soldiers are not used to the water and soil, coupled with Liyang, the first emperor of the North Liang Xu Snapdragon scruples for a long time, afraid of the North Liang iron riders to swallow the wolf with a tiger, the destruction of North Mang after the year Xu Snapdragon can not do to row the south and north of the river and rule, at this time can be successful, after all, the territory of the North Mang revered martial arts do not revere the literature, if the North Liang occupy a sufficiently self-supporting rich River Liang Corridor, and then The northern part of the bag, so that the confrontation between the north and the south, is considered stable. So the former emperor of Liyang a secret decree, in a favorable situation, forcing Xu Snapdragon to retreat, and signed a contract with the North Mang, is not a good move, but also can not be called a stupid move. This created the current situation where Liyang, Liang and Mang are the three dominant forces. This is the first thing I want to say to Your Majesty: timing is not as good as location, and location is not as good as harmony.”
“The basis of a country is not in the dangers of heaven, but in the hearts of the people. The people’s heart is not so simple as the people’s heart, the people since ancient times follow the crowd, pay attention but not blindly. Spring and Autumn scholar attached to the North Mang, in the North Mang, it is more blessing and misfortune, have to be detected.”
“The old minister in the central plains countries travel, remember all kinds of characters two thousand six hundred and forty-three people, one by one, each rough, please your majesty to find female officials record in the book.”
“A farmer can cultivate thirty acres of land, mu received rice two stone or three stone, for two stone for the middle, mu to one stone back to the main family, a family of five, people eat a liter a day, a year that is consumed eighteen stone, about the remaining twelve stone, in addition to clothing, marriage and sacrifice, old age, sickness and death, etc., all need to be paid. In the event of drought, floods and locusts, the strain. The old minister said or Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiahu Basin and Western Sichuan and other imperial granaries where the situation, the rest of the places, often have a family and children do not lift, a large number of people who do not root floating waves, is not uncommon. Liyang dynasty so-called sea peace and quiet, quite water.”
“Liyang dynasty has no official feudal and officials have feudal seedling, the official shall not be local people, officials are different, generations of local officials, not a hundred years, will be all over the place is a snake, Zhang Julu’s emergency, a lot of hasty policy, lies in the have to be anxious.”
“I pick sea merchants salt merchants tea merchants three kinds for His Majesty said Liyang financial tax.”
“Liyang dynasty new sheer official position of the rise and fall, said military and state politics, monthly sealing is sent to the tube, become the current political record. It is divided into twenty-one categories such as the emperor’s lineage, the consort, the five types of rituals, the mikoshi, the Taoism and Buddhism, the Ruiyi, the feudal barbarians, etc. I will talk about them one by one. Let me say one by one, your majesty will be able to know the autumn in one leaf, twenty-one leaves know the departure from the sun.”
“As Longhu Mountain resides in peace, Your Majesty should take the opportunity to have the State Master begin compiling ten thousand volumes of the Dao Collection, so that the Daode sect can become the world’s Taoist ruler.”
“Western red and yellow two religion dispute, your majesty must not just watch the show, our dynasty extermination of buddhist matter, can exterminate zen big buddha, but to set up a small buddha of tantric religion.”
The world affairs, no matter how detailed, Taiping made the old Confucian scholar narrated, day said, the empress removed the first day to sit on the steps, the second day will walk down the steps, followed by the old man walking around, feet on top of the brocade. Night is also non-stop said, lanterns hanging high, lights as brilliant as day, the square is not allowed to others step, Her Majesty will personally hold the lamp for the old man lighting. Another day, the two people eat meals will casually or squat or sit on top of the satin panels, the empress has even hung up a cloth bag, filled with warm water and food, the old man if you feel thirsty and hungry, do not have to speak, reach out to her can ask for. Every border will be in the ground circle drawing of the peace order has not known how many pieces of charcoal, hands and fingers black, every time hastily wash their hands, the water basin is full of ink.
The empress of the dragon robe wide sleeves and long hem, later she simply take the silk thread tied tightly, easy to walk, do not care about half a bit of decency and etiquette.
Page 5 of the candlelight night talk, the empress is still not the slightest bit tired, glowing.
Seven days full of knowledge to say all.
The old man walked out of the most gigantic map under the sky, stood at the bottom of the steps, the empress held his hand, his back to the slightly wrinkled that rivers and mountains embroidery, walked up the steps together, calmly said: “I wish Mr. for the emperor’s teacher.”