Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 284
"Queen, I don't want to study anymore, Tao Gu is too strict." Seven-year-old Guo Zongxun complained to Queen Fu in the hall.

The side hall of the Chuigong Hall, where the Empress Dowager Regent handles daily memorials, outside the black eaves of the main hall, the wind is whistling against the tiles, and there are rumbling thunders from time to time, and the rain beats on the tiles after the thunder.

The light in the palace was dim, not like daytime, but like the darkness of evening.From time to time, a cool breeze would blow in from outside the hall, blowing the curtains hanging everywhere, creating an uneasy atmosphere.

Empress Fu was absent-minded and didn't notice Guo Zongxun calling him.

"Mother?" Guo Zongxun called out again. After all, he was still young. A seven-year-old child will only be in the first grade of elementary school, and he doesn't understand many things.

Only then did Empress Fu come back to her senses: "Zong Xun go down and rest, I'm a little tired."

Guo Zongxun took a look outside, although it was dark outside, but it was only afternoon, and the little emperor was full of puzzlement, with tears in his eyes.

The nanny next to him immediately understood, she came over and pulled the child and said, "Your Majesty, let's go back to the palace to play."

"I want to follow my mother." The little emperor was still a little reluctant, and was taken away by the nanny.

The official family was very busy when they were alive, and Queen Fu took care of Guo Zongxun most of the time, and she had no children herself, so the little emperor was very clingy to the queen.

But at this moment, Empress Fu didn't have the heart to think about those things. Even Guo Zongxun, who was always cute before, and the prince who wished to be with him all the time, felt a little annoying at this time.

She is a smart woman, so naturally she doesn't think that the religious teachings have changed, and it is not her who has changed, but the situation has changed.

In the past, she would feel at ease and secure when she held on to the prince tightly, so no matter whether the prince was annoying or not, sensible or not, she would feel close.

But it was different later. Her father and brother did not dare to enter the capital, which basically showed that she was abandoned. Shi Congyun controlled the court with absolute advantage. It may have hurt itself.

The prince is still a child, but he can vaguely feel that the people in the palace are treating him coldly, and he doesn't understand the change
What Empress Fu was concerned about was the war in the Shu land ahead, because the court was not peaceful.

Shi Congyun was not there, and there were many actions in the outer town of Jiedu. Some time ago, Li Yun wrote a letter to propose that the tax for the court should be reduced this year, because the drought in the east of the river caused a drought and the harvest was not good.

This is not the first time that Li Yun has made such a request. Since the middle and late Tang Dynasty to the present, all the envoys have collected the local taxes under their jurisdiction by themselves, and only handed over the rest to the court after deducting their own expenses.

There are too many things that can be done in it. How much to hand over to the court is almost entirely up to the Jiedushi, which is also an important reason why the Jiedushi can grow bigger and become the actual local emperor. Controlling local financial taxes can be used to recruit troops wantonly. , Raise private soldiers.

Jiedu in various places is close to the capital, and the imperial court has strong control. It can be clearly understood by sending a supervising army there. Those who are farther away and powerful will not dare to do anything even if the supervising army envoys pass by. How many.

And those like Li Yun are even more domineering. When the official family was alive, the supervisors sent him dared to imprison him. When the official family used soldiers in the Southern Tang Dynasty, he proposed that because of successive years of wars, the people on the Zhaoyi Army site were scattered, and they were handed over to the court every year. Taxes will be reduced.

At that time, his timing was very accurate, and almost all the imperial army was fighting in Huainan. At this time, he made such a request, but the officials could only grit their teeth and agree.

The result is again this time!

This time, the imperial army set out to fight in Sichuan. Not long after Qin Wangshi left Congyun, Li Yun wrote a letter to mention this matter. At that time, Li Gu and other courtiers were very angry.

Because Li Yun threatened to cut taxes when the government was using troops in Huainan, it is still vivid in my memory, and now it happened again, when I angrily reprimanded Li Yun in the Chui Gong Palace.

Someone proposed at that time to reject Li Yun's unreasonable request, because his Zhaoyi Army hardly pays much tax to the court every year, and most of them are used by him to support private soldiers, and now he wants to reduce it even more!
Empress Fu didn't make a decision for a while, it was a big deal.

Li Yun's Zhaoyi Army has tens of thousands of soldiers and is very close to the capital. Now that King Qin is not in the capital, she dare not make a decision lightly.

When I couldn't sleep at night, I suddenly thought of King Qin's order before leaving.
"It can be as short as a few months, or as long as a year. The Queen Mother will be the one in the court. You are in charge of the inside, and I am in charge of the outside. Take care of the world."

Every time she thinks about it, she has a strange feeling. She doesn't know whether King Qin doesn't know how to speak or is just like other reckless soldiers who say such things.

But it was precisely because of those explanations that she couldn't just ignore the major affairs of the court, probably because she was afraid of King Qin's despotic power.

So after thinking twice, she decided to agree to Li Yun's request. Although it was infuriating, Shi Congyun was away, and the Shu army was far away in Shu. At this time, it would be very unfavorable for the court to turn against the Zhaoyi army.

For this matter, Li Gu still complained quite a bit, but he didn't contradict her.

As a result, her retreat led to a series of bad results. First, Yang Tingzhang, the Jianxiong Jiedu envoy of Jinzhou, wrote a letter together, saying that in order to guard against the Northern Han Dynasty, the Jinzhou defenders should be strengthened, so the taxes handed over to the court this year will also be reduced according to the share.

Guo Chong, the envoy of the Chengde Festival of Zhenzhou, said that the city of Zhenzhou was damaged in the last war and needs to be repaired. This year, it will pay less taxes and restore it next year.

Among these things, everyone thinks that only Guo Chong's memorial has something to do with it.

Empress Fu was very angry and helpless. Li Jun and Yang Tingzhang had seen that Shi Congyun was not there. She was the only woman in the court, so they dared to present such a memorial. If Shi Congyun was there, how dare they!
But because of her previous weakness to Li Yun, it was difficult to refuse the latter, because the opening had already been opened.

Now Li Gu couldn't bear it anymore, and said a few words to her tactfully.

At the same time, most of the officials in the various ministries of the DPRK are old fritters who have gone through several dynasties. When Shi Congyun is not around, they are not afraid that the Queen Mother will procrastinate in doing things. It was also the result of the help of Li Gu, Luqiu Zhongqing and others.

Empress Fu felt even more aggrieved, and she was looking forward to Shi Congyun's return as soon as possible, she was afraid that she would not be able to control the situation.

These pressures made her always restless, and it was the first time that she understood that it would be so difficult for a prime minister to govern a country.

In addition, the external affairs also worried her. Shi Congyun's concubine Zhao Shijian was pregnant, but the sixth sister did not move. In the past, she had a feud with Zhao Shijian, and now Zhao Shijian was pregnant first, which made her even more disturbed.

All kinds of things piled up together, which made her mentally weak and thinner, so she could only try her best to do the things Shi Congyun entrusted to her, and at the same time, she was looking forward to the news from the west day and night.

At this time, everyone realized the importance of Shi Congyun. The sooner he came back, the sooner the situation would be stabilized, and the Jiedu envoys who were about to move and secretly sharpened their knives because of the death of the official family were calmed down.

In the afternoon, after dealing with the memorials for the whole day in the Chuigong Palace, Empress Fu's forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, her complexion was a little pale, and her beautiful cheeks were full of exhaustion. She rubbed her temples, and when she raised her hand, a palace maid brought a copper basin to her. before.

Wring it dry with a white silk handkerchief dampened with water, and gently wipe off the fine beads of sweat on her forehead.

"Empress Dowager, do you want to change the water to warm water? Cold water is easy to catch cold." The maid suggested.

Empress Fu shook her head, "No, it's so refreshing."

She thought in her heart whether she should go and see about Zhao Shijian, but she couldn't let it go. After all, the two had a verbal disagreement before. At that time, she was still a queen, and her words were naturally condescending, which made her feel a lot of grievances. That little girl She is also smart and tolerant, and has never contradicted her for the sake of the Shi family.

But now the situation has changed.
The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she became. Zhao Shijian was Shi Congyun's favorite woman. After all, she was not. Although Shi Congyun had promised her, men were fickle, who could tell.

After a while, she still couldn't make up her mind and had no excuses, so she had to let the matter go.

Go back to the harem for bed.

The next day, there were still a lot of memorials sent by Zhongshumen, most of them were from the north. Last year, with the victory in the battle against Liao, the Zhou army also expanded a lot of land, and the border line was directly pushed to the south of Youzhou forty or fifty years. inside.

In addition, it is a border area, many officials arrange dispatches, and there are many contents of fortification in the border area. The Jiedu envoy in the north also used this as an excuse to speak to the court. He will make a decision at will, but let Li Gu, Luqiu Zhongqing and others discuss it before making a decision.

At noon, she hastily ate something sweet, and in the afternoon, the sunlight passed through the gate of the main hall, slanted into the hall, spread out on the simple bricks and stones, and the whole hall became softer in the dim light. .

It was the sound of hurried footsteps coming from outside the hall. She looked up and found that it was a privy official who had come to pay her respects and was already waiting outside the hall to talk to the eunuch.

"Come in directly without notification." Empress Fu raised her hand.

The eunuchs outside immediately led the officials in, because she was the queen mother, the officials stopped a dozen steps away to salute.

"Report to the Empress Dowager, Great Victory, Great Victory to the King of Qin! There are two battle reports, which were sent from Shu after a few days, and arrived at the Privy Council almost at the same time." The officials below reported excitedly.

Empress Fu took a deep breath and was so excited that she almost stood up. She squeezed the handle of the chair tightly and calmed down: "What kind of victory, just report it."

"Yes!" The official of the Privy Council said directly: "Since the king of Qin sent troops, he has conquered Xingzhou, Xixia, Sanquan, Lizhou, Jianzhou, Zizhou, Mianzhou and so on.

The army of the East Road also broke through Sanhui and Wushanzhai along the way, occupied Kuizhou, and then went up along the west of the Yangtze River to conquer Wanzhou, Kaizhou, Zhongzhou), Suizhou and other states.

The king of Qin said that he will be able to join forces in Chengdu in the middle of this month. Counting the time in the dark, the two armies should have arrived at the city of Chengdu by then, and the Kingdom of Shu may soon perish. "

Empress Fu was so excited that she couldn't speak. She was not only looking forward to the demise of the Shu Kingdom, but also because Shi Congyun would come back to take charge of Daliang.

I am also full of emotions in my heart. Shi Congyun is young, but he is like a god. These years, chasing south and north, every time he sends troops, things will become a definite number. It seems that as long as he leads the troops, everything will be fine. It has almost become a routine that everyone is accustomed to.

Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder why there are young people with such great abilities in this world. She used to think that her father was able to defeat the Khitan invasion army together with his colleagues. He was already a rare hero in the world. It is also the British Lord who went to Huainan to fight in person.

But in comparison, Shi Congyun seemed bleak in front of Shi Congyun's unrivaled achievements. Thinking of his exhortation of "You are in charge, I am in charge of outside", but thinking of his own identity, his whole body became cold instantly, and he asked in a cold voice. : "Does King Qin have any other instructions?"

The officials below hesitated, "There is also an order for the queen mother. The prince said that all affairs in the court are entrusted to the queen mother. Li Gong, if someone disobeys the law and slacks in government affairs, please make a note of the queen mother and Li Gong. When the king of Qin returns to the court, he will naturally deal with it. "

Empress Fu understood as soon as she heard that this was not for her, but for the ministers, otherwise it would not have been publicly written in the battle report to the Privy Council.

I felt a little warmth in my heart, and I was very grateful. Thinking of Shi Congyun's hard work fighting thousands of miles away, and thinking of her difficulties in the court, I deliberately wrote such a battle report. This is not only a battle report, but also for the courtiers. warn.

Tell them that the army has won, and King Qin will bring the victorious army back to Beijing at any time, and warn those old tricks in the court who don't take the orders of the Queen Mother and Li Gu to heart.

Empress Fu immediately said: "Go out with the battle report intact, Donghuamen, Xihuamen specially send officials to explain and read it to the people, it can't stop for a day.

During the day after tomorrow, the battle report was read to all officials. "

The official hesitated, "Queen Mother, will it take too much manpower if you don't stop all day long, the Privy Council doesn't have many manpower at all."

This time, Empress Fu didn't speak, and the hall was silent for a while. The official quickly reacted and even knelt down and kowtowed: "Damn it, you shouldn't question the Queen Mother. There are still many idle officials in the Privy Council, and they will definitely follow the Queen Mother's orders." do it!"

"Go down." Empress Fu said.

The official retreated in panic, and before leaving, he repeatedly promised that he would follow the Queen Mother's order.

When he walked away, there was no sound outside the hall, Empress Fu couldn't help but burst out laughing, she hadn't been so happy and relaxed for a long time.

She knew that she was a fox pretending to be a tiger, and she took advantage of Shi Congyun's fierce tiger's prestige, and the officials of the Privy Council also realized that the King of Qin would come back after defeating Shu. If she remembered him, Shi Congyun would file a complaint when he came back. He will not end well.

But she is not foxy
"Hmph, I made you all disobedient!" Empress Fu felt a little proud in her heart, and now she was finally elated. Thinking about reading the Qin King's battle report in the court hall in the future, knowing that the progress of the conquest of Shu was so fast, Shi Congyun was about to lead the troops back, and again She bluntly supported her, and she felt happy thinking about how the old guy would react to those cunning tricks.

But soon she also understood what this meant. Shi Congyun could calm them down with a word from thousands of miles away, but she was too busy.

Slowly calming down and thinking about the pros and cons, he beckoned to get close to the maid, "You can prepare some gifts for pregnant women for me these few days, and go to the Qin Palace when you have time."

(End of this chapter)