After the rebirth, the queen took the Meiqiang tragedy script

Lu Yanchen's usually serious and icy face seemed to be moved, but he quickly bowed his head and saluted Ye Qinghuai. When he raised his head again, he had returned to the silent look that Ye Qinghuai was familiar with.

"Your Majesty, I will answer while standing."

Ye Qinghuai naturally knew what he was worried about, and said, "You are my teacher, and the position of teacher is yours, it is not an encroachment."

Lu Yanchen lowered his head again and said, "First we are the ruler and the subject, then we are the teacher and the student."

Ye Qinghuai looked at his stubborn figure and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: It turns out that he is still the familiar Lu Yanchen.

She sighed and said, "I have had a stiff neck these past two days. Sir, you are tall. If you stand like this, I have to look up at you, and my neck hurts."

After saying that, she raised her hand and touched the back of her neck in pretended distress.

As expected, Lu Yanchen fell for it. He immediately looked at Ye Qinghuai's neck worriedly, hesitated for a moment, then bowed again, walked to the eight-immortal table, and sat down opposite Ye Qinghuai.

Li Baoquan tactfully retreated, closed the door, and stood guard at the entrance.

"These are all the Ziwu Xianhao tea left this year. When the new ones come down next year, I'll have someone send some to you, sir." Ye Qinghuai said as he picked up the tea bowl and took a sip.

Lu Yanchen seemed to have not seen her for a long time, his eyes fell on her face, and he did not look away for a long time. He looked at Ye Qinghuai's thin lips pressed on the edge of the teacup, his expression suddenly moved, his Adam's apple rolled up and down, he dodged his gaze, picked up the tea bowl in front of him and took a sip.

"This rice cake is my favorite snack since I was a child. Sir, please try it too."

As he spoke, Ye Qinghuai picked up a piece and started eating.

She was really hungry. Today was the Little New Year. Although there was no complicated ritual process like New Year's Eve, according to palace custom, the emperor would go to the Fengxian Hall in the harem to worship his ancestors on the Little New Year.

At Li Baoquan's sharp morning call, Ye Qinghuai got up before dawn, hurriedly drank some hot porridge, and went to the Fengxian Temple to kneel for an hour.

Now, more than two hours have passed since she drank that mouthful of porridge.

Ye Qinghuai, who was concentrating on the delicious food, didn't notice that Lu Yanchen seemed to be stunned when he looked at the plate of red bean rice cake. An irrepressible nostalgic look appeared on his face, as if he thought of warm memories. He quickly glanced at Ye Qinghuai's profile. The emperor had already eaten most of the rice cake in her hand. She was concentrating on eating and didn't pay attention to Lu Yanchen.

Lu Yanchen lowered his eyes, collected his expression, and regained his usual calmness before reaching out to take a piece of cake.

"Sir, have you ever returned home during this northern expedition?" Ye Qinghuai finished eating and took another piece.

"I went back once after the Beidi troops withdrew."

"That's just a matter of the past few days. How is your family? I remember your hometown is in Hengtai. Has it been affected by the war?"

"Everything is fine at home, but business is a little slow because of the war." Ye Qinghuai nodded.

"The cabinet issued an order to withdraw the troops the day before yesterday, and they should be able to reach the front line today. Most of the soldiers in Yunzhou should be able to go home in time to celebrate the New Year." Ye Qinghuai said.

Ye Qinghuai finished the cake in his hand, washed his hands, and continued: "Sir, you have been in Beijing for many years. It is rare for you to go home this time. I didn't want you to leave your hometown at the end of the year, but the situation in Beijing..." Ye Qinghuai sighed and said, "It is indeed urgent."

"Sir, I believe you have heard that the Queen is pregnant." Ye Qinghuai's voice slowed down, and his face became visibly gloomy. "This is not my intention, but now that things have come to this, I can only find a way to deal with it."

There was a hint of surprise in Lu Yanchen's eyes. It was obvious that he did not fully understand what "not my intention" meant.

But he did not dwell on this point too much. He knew that the relationship between the emperor and Gu Shihai had always been hostile, so it was expected that the emperor did not want to see the queen pregnant.

"His Majesty once issued an imperial decree that as long as the Queen gave birth to a prince, he would be made the Crown Prince. Now that the Queen is pregnant, Lord Gu will surely take action." Lu Yanchen analyzed.

"I detained Gu Haiwang in the palace for several months on the pretext of recuperating from illness. I released him two days before the Queen diagnosed her pregnancy. The Gu family asked to have Gu Haiwang dismissed from his post and demoted to a commoner, so I released him from the palace." Ye Qinghuai paused, and continued, "In addition, the budgets of various ministries reported by the cabinet a few days ago showed that the budget of the Ministry of War increased by 50% compared to last year. Military expenditures in Yunzhou, Rongzhou, and Leizhou have all increased significantly."

"The cabinet proposed to increase the number of soldiers in the prefectures to resist the invasion of the Northern Di and Jinchuan. The total number of soldiers in the prefectures will be increased by 63,000. This will not only cost a lot of money, but also the number of soldiers in Yunzhou and Rongzhou will even exceed that of the Jingji Guard. The Yunzhou Jiedushi Xu Ye and Rongzhou Jiedushi Li Yunfei are both Gu Gelao's men."

Ye Qinghuai was silent for a moment, and seeing that Lu Yanchen didn't say anything, he continued, "Sir, do you still remember that after the injustice of the chief wine was redressed, he returned to the capital from Leizhou? At that time, I actually had the idea of ​​asking the chief wine to come to the palace to state his grievances, and use this as an opportunity to overthrow Lord Gu."

Lu Yanchen raised his head and looked at Ye Qinghuai, his expression somewhat nervous.

"But I didn't do it in the end. Because at that time, the Zhongzhou army moved to the capital in the name of an exercise, and the Yizhou army also moved, and I didn't even have the imperial guards in order at that time. I was afraid that if I pushed Gu Ge Lao too far, there would be a coup."

Lu Yanchen's expression darkened, and he said, "Your Majesty is right to worry."

"Sir, do you also think that Lord Gu is someone who might do such a thing?"

Lu Yanchen's expression was slightly shocked, and he seemed to be a little shy, saying: "Old Man Gu is not as calm as Old Man Chen, and the military forces behind him will not watch him fall."

His words were somewhat meant to excuse Gu Shihai's rebelliousness. It was obvious that Lu Yanchen did not have the same irreconcilable hostility towards Gu Shihai as Ye Qinghuai did.

Ye Qinghuai did not continue the topic with him. She paused, then went straight to the point, saying, "He Qingchang returned to the capital a few days ago and analyzed the war situation in the north with me. He suggested to me that we take advantage of the retreat of the Northern Di troops to divide our forces in the vast sea to quell the rebellion of the Western Rong and bandits in the west, and at the same time deter the Northern Di royal court."

Ye Qinghuai raised his head and looked at Lu Yanchen, and continued, "He Qingchang recommended you to me as the commander of this Western Army. Has he ever mentioned this to you?"

Lu Yanchen looked a little surprised, and he replied, "Before Marshal He returned to Beijing, he did discuss with me the strategy of deploying the west, and I also told him that if they wanted to send troops westward, I would be willing to follow them. But the details of the westward march were not discussed at that time, and Marshal He did not mention that he wanted me to be the commander-in-chief."

Ye Qinghuai's eyes darkened, and he thought: "So, this is what Lord Gu meant..." (End of this chapter)