Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Hearing that his brother had so easily absolved himself of his grave sin, the critical burden that had been pressing on Li Xian's mind suddenly disappeared. He was moved and ashamed at the same time, and couldn't help but burst into tears: "The emperor said so Yes, I had no intention of coveting the throne at first, but Shizhong Pei sent someone to trick me, saying that Wang Wenzuo deceived my brother and deceived me out of Chang'an in order to do evil things. He also said that brother, you are in Chang'an's body. One day is worse than the other, if I don't come back earlier, if things change, I will be sorry for my ancestors and the people of the world. I was confused for a moment and fell into that guy's way!"

"Don't cry, don't cry!" Li Hong put on his robe, got out of bed with Concubine Yang's help, walked to Li Xian, stretched out his hand to help him up: "I can't blame you entirely for this matter. Yes, It was Sanlang who had the idea to let you leave the capital in the first place, but he didn't want to do anything evil, but to get you to leave Chang'an, a place of right and wrong, and to go out with him to gain experience. I just didn't expect that people are not as good as God. Forget it, these things still happened later!”

"It's all my brother's fault!" Li Xian lowered his head: "General Wang's hard work has been wasted in vain!"

"It's all over. It's good that nothing irreversible happened!" Li Hong smiled and said, "By the way, how is the situation outside now?"

"Pei Shizhong's men captured Shaanzhou two days ago, but Yiji Lianbode and others burned down the granary and wharf when they fled. Water transportation could not be restored in a short period of time. In order to transport grain, Pei Shizhong has ordered all chariots and horses in Chang'an to be transported. Send it to Shaanzhou to transport grain!"

"How many kilo of grain can be transported by land?" Li Hong said with a wry smile: "The land road from Shaanzhou to Chang'an is almost five hundred miles. People on the road eat what the horses feed, and if you can transport ten kilo of grain, it will be good if you can get more than one kilo of grain. If we want to supply Chang'an, it won't be enough to bring all the carriages and horses in Guanzhong. Pei Judao is very capable, but he just doesn't know how to adapt. If something unexpected happens, he will make mistakes and make a joke!"

"That's what the emperor said!" Li Xian nodded: "In order to show that he set an example, Pei Judao donated all his carriages and horses. As a result, he now rides a donkey cart to go to court every day, so he got a reputation among the people. The nickname "Donkey Cart Waiter"!"

"'Donkey Cart Attendant'?" Li Hong shook his head: "Forget it, how is Sanlang doing now? How is the war in Haidong?"

"The war in Haidong has subsided!" Li Xian replied: "As for General Wang, after quelling the chaos, he led an army of 120,000 people south to fight against the rebellion. He has already crossed the Qinghe River and will soon drink from the Yellow River!"

"Is there such a thing?" Li Hong's eyes lit up and he smiled: "Pei Judao must have a headache now, right?"

"Yes!" Li Xian nodded: "He originally wanted to mobilize Pei Xingjian to resist General Wang, but Pei Xingjian had to ask the emperor's brother to review the army before he could lead the army out. Also, the clan nobles of Chang'an also signed a petition I wrote a letter asking the emperor to return to power, and issued an edict to summon General Wang to withdraw his troops and come to Beijing to assist the government! Under internal and external difficulties, Pei Judao and the queen were at their wits' end, and the queen got angry at me, scolding me for coming back to Chang'an to seek death!"

"Queen?" A disdainful smile appeared on Li Hong's face: "This woman is like this. If Sanlang hadn't interceded for her, I would have killed her long ago!"

"General Wang interceded for her?" Li Xian was surprised.

"Well!" Li Hong sighed: "Forget it, let's not mention it! A-yin, what are your plans next!"

"I will summon the important officials of the clan to the palace at dawn, and let you, the Emperor, return to the throne first! The rest of the matter will be decided by the Emperor!" Li Xiandao: "How?"

Li Hong nodded when he heard the words, and was about to say a few words of approval when suddenly there was a quarrel outside. The two brothers looked out of the palace in surprise, and saw several palace maids coming in from the outside in a panic. The leader kept saying: "No. Okay, not good!”

"What's wrong?" Li Xian asked.

"The queen and the servant are here!"

"The Queen and the Attendant?" Li Xian was stunned for a moment, and then he paused and said, "It's all my fault. Someone from the entourage must have gone back and reported privately to the father and daughter just now, letting them know that I'm here, Brother Emperor! "

Faced with a big change, Li Hong acted much calmer: "Axian, why are you panicking? I say to the public that you and I are kings and ministers, and to the private sector we are brothers. What's the shame of you coming to see me?" ? Come, stand by the couch, don’t lose the dignity of our Li family!”

Seeing his brother being so calm, Li Xian couldn't help but think to himself: "Brother is still a brother, but it's different at critical moments. I was so confused earlier that I even thought about replacing him. I really overestimated my capabilities!" He agreed. With a sound, he followed Li Hong's instructions and walked to the couch and stood there with his hands down.

Pei Judao and the Queen walked into the palace. Behind them were more than 20 strong chamberlains. After they entered the door, they spread out behind the Pei family and their daughters, forming a loose encirclement that invisibly enveloped the Emperor and King Pei. in it.

Pei Judao's eyes swept across the room, and when he saw Li Xian standing next to the couch, he could not help but jump in his brows as he vaguely wanted to protect Li Hong.

"Shizhong Pei, Queen, what's the matter with you coming here late at night?" Li Hong leaned on the couch and asked softly.

"The old minister is here tonight, but he is here for King Pei to supervise the country!" Pei Judao looked at Li Xian: "King Pei, the country is in a critical stage now. You shoulder a huge responsibility, so please take care of yourself. !" "Shizhong Pei!" Li Xian replied: "I am no longer a prisoner of the country!"

"Not a prisoner of the country?" Pei Judao's heart rang loudly: "How can this be allowed? As the leader of the emperor's disciples, and now that the emperor's dragon body is not hesitant, if you don't shoulder this burden, how can you let the King of England and others shoulder it?"

"I am a mediocre person, and I am not qualified for the task of supervising the country! The King of England and the others are younger than me, and they will only be worse!" Li Xiandao: "I have just discussed it with the emperor's brother. Tomorrow, the emperor's brother will return to power and issue an edict to recall Wang Da. General, order him to withdraw his troops and return to Chang'an to assist the government in order to relieve the world's worries!"

"This -, this -!" Pei Judao was confused by the huge amount of information contained in Li Xian's words. He did not expect that his position would change so much in less than half an hour. , which is tantamount to fully accepting the petition requirements of Pei Xingjian and the nobles of the clan. That's fine. The problem is that he doesn't know what his identity is in it? After all, his surname is Pei and his surname is Li: he is the one responsible for supervising the country and even usurping the throne, not himself!

"I'm talking to King Pei, did you just drink the ecstasy soup? You're talking nonsense!" Queen Pei could no longer control her temper and sneered: "If I do what you said, the world's worries will be solved. I don’t know if I can’t get rid of my concubine’s identity, but I definitely can’t get rid of your worries. A glass of poisonous wine is the best outcome!”

"Whether it's poisonous wine or white silk, this king deserves it!" Li Xianqiang replied: "I made such a big mistake in a single thought. If I can atone for my sin, it will be a great blessing!"

"I see you were just drunk by your brother's bowls of ecstasy soup! You are really a doll." Queen Pei said angrily: "Did he just promise you that he would be exempted from guilt, and do you believe it? Of course he is doing nothing at this time. He agrees to all the conditions, and when the power is in his hands, it’s just a matter of words to live or die you, how can you still blame him for not keeping his word?"

Hearing what the Queen said, Li Xian was a little shaken. He looked back at his brother and firmed up: "Queen, you don't have to say anything. I've made up my mind. Anyway, I won't be a prisoner of the country. Everything else will follow." It's up to you!" After saying that, he closed his eyes and stopped talking.

Queen Pei couldn't help but become anxious when she saw this. When she and Pei Judao learned that Li Xian had gone to see Li Hong, they knew something was wrong and hurried over. Unexpectedly, it was still too late. I don’t know what means Li Hong used to fool Li Xian again. Now they were very embarrassed. Even though there were more than twenty strong eunuchs in the house, it was not difficult at all to kill brothers Li Hong and Li Xian, but the difficulty was how to end this kind of thing. If the emperor and King Pei died in just one night, there would be no need for Wang Wenzuo to take action. Only the nobles of the clan in Chang'an City and Pei Xingjian, who was leading an army outside Chang'an City, would not be able to pass this test. There would be no choice but to destroy the clan. The second consequence. That meant that the father and daughter had worked hard for so long, but they had confirmed Wang Wenzuo's various accusations against him. Empress Pei would rather die than see such consequences.

"King Pei!" Pei Judao coughed: "Do you think you are sacrificing yourself for the country by doing this? But have you ever thought that even if you don't serve as the supervisor of the country and let the emperor reset and issue an edict, then Wang Wenzuo will be honest Have you really liberated yourself from military power and returned to Chang'an to assist the government?"

"What do you mean?" Li Xian opened his eyes.

"What the old minister means is very simple!" Pei Judao sneered: "Maybe you were wrong at the beginning of the whole thing, but now that the matter has reached this point, it can't be settled without King Pei sacrificing yourself. Wang Wenzuo has already issued a message to retaliate. , commanding hundreds of thousands of troops to go south. That’s hundreds of thousands of horses! Do you think he would just leave the army and come to Chang’an after receiving an imperial edict? Even if he wanted to, the generals and soldiers around him, and those who support him behind the scenes, Will people let him go? If you think so, I can only say that you are too naive!"

"Shizhong Pei, what do you mean?" Li Xian asked.

"What the old minister means is that whether you are the prisoner of the country or not, this battle must be fought! And it must be won!" Pei Judao said coldly: "The reason is very simple. The hundreds of thousands of troops led by Wang Wenzuo are like Riding on a tiger, he will either drive the tiger away and eat his enemies, or he will be overturned and eaten by the tiger. Before feeding the tiger, he will never be ordered to enter Chang'an!"

Hearing Pei Judao's cold words, Li Xian couldn't help but shudder, and he looked back at Li Hong. Li Hong still had a faint smile on his face, as if he hadn't heard Pei Judao's words just now. He couldn't help but feel ashamed: "Servant Pei, you are alarmist again and want to deceive me!"

"Whether I am alarmist or not, you can think about it for yourself, King Pei!" Pei Judao said coldly: "Don't forget, when Wang Wenzuo arrived in Fan Yang, he only had 20,000 to 30,000 people with him. When he arrived at Qinghe, there were more than 100,000 people. This is too much Where did the nearly 100,000 people come from? That's Hebei! When this dynasty was establishing the Ding Dynasty, wasn't Hebei the place where the most intense fighting took place?"

"Shizhong Pei! Queen!" Li Hong finally spoke: "As long as you do it honestly, I can swear to my ancestors here that only you and your family will be exiled to Lingnan without involving the clan. If you break the oath, God will be disgusted with you. What! How about it?"

Pei Judao was stunned. He didn't expect that Li Hong's conditions were so generous and he swore a poisonous oath at this time, so he couldn't help but hesitate. Queen Pei on the side saw this and said angrily: "Ah, how can you believe this kind of nonsense? Besides, even if what he said is true, if you and I travel thousands of miles to the misty land of Lingnan, it may not be any better than death!" "

"If you think Lingnan is too far away, choose Yizhou County for Jiangnan West Road! This should be enough, right?" Li Hong said.

Pei Judao was even more shaken when he heard Li Hong's promise to change the place of exile. Like the Tang Dynasty, there would generally be amnesty after a few years, giving exiled officials a chance to come back. Of course, there's nothing you can do if you die on the way or in the exile. At Pei Judao's age, he probably won't be able to wait for amnesty no matter where he goes, but he still has descendants. Jiangnan West Road is located in today's Jiangxi Province, Hunan Province, Hubei Province, and part of Anhui Province. Although it was a desolate place at the time, compared with ghost places like Lingnan, it was a fairyland on earth. After the Pei family was exiled, they waited until the amnesty to return The probability of hometown is undoubtedly much higher.

Seeing that Pei Judao was shaken by Li Hong's verbal attacks, Queen Pei felt anxious and shouted: "Come on, don't take down this foolish king yet!"

"Dog slave, let the war go! Who dares to kill the king!" Li Xian shouted, blocking his brother behind him, and went to touch his waist with his right hand, only to find that there was only an empty scabbard. He remembered that he had just handed the sword to that man. The palace maid was in trouble, so she had to clenched her two fists and put them in a posture, looking fiercely at the eunuch who was pressing over her. Although these chamberlains overwhelmed the Li Xian brothers in strength and numbers, due to the royal prestige, no one dared to step forward. They all thought of waiting for others to come first before following up. The scene froze for a moment!

"That's it!" Pei Judao saw the situation and sighed: "That's it! Your Majesty, you win, don't forget the vow you made earlier!"

"Father!" The queen's voice was hoarse, and her eyes were full of tears. Pei Judao walked to the queen's side and said with a wry smile: "Daughter, let's stop here! Even if we kill the emperor's brothers tonight, we will be cut into pieces at dawn, and the whole family will be destroyed. Whether it is the North Gate Forbidden Army Even the Nanya Forbidden Army will never accept our orders again after knowing that we are regicides! If we take a step back, maybe the Pei family will have a future!" (End of Chapter)