Sima Yi's Three Kingdoms Collection Collection

Chapter 293 The Ups and Downs of the Imperial Family (2)
Cao Rui did not summon Zhou Xuan in the Nine Dragon Palace as usual, but asked the messenger to lead him directly into the most secret "Ziyuan Forbidden Room" in the harem for questioning.

The four corners of the Forbidden Palace are dimly lit by candles, and there is a huge object in the middle, covered with a thick layer of green felt, making it difficult to see what is inside.

Cao Rui leaned listlessly on the throne dragon bed, staring blankly at the huge thing covered with green felt, silent.It wasn't until the middle base general Cao Shuang led Zhou Xuan respectfully outside the gate of the Forbidden Palace that he begged to see him four or five times before he suddenly woke up from deep thought: "Come in!"

Cao Shuang respectfully led Zhou Xuan into the "Ziyuan Forbidden Room", and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, Master Zhou has arrived..."

"Understood." Cao Rui did not even lift his eyelids, he lowered his head slightly and ordered, "Lead the guards to guard the 'Ziyuan Forbidden Room' carefully and strictly outside, if you find anyone close to eavesdropping - Shoot and kill on the spot!"

"Yes!" Cao Shuang clasped his fists in response, turned his face to the room, and stepped back slowly.

In the quiet forbidden room, only Cao Rui and Zhou Xuan were left at this moment.

"Your Majesty..." Zhou Xuan raised his head, carefully looking up at Cao Rui.

"Zhou Aiqing, go and pull down that layer of green felt." Cao Rui suddenly raised his eyes and looked directly at him, as if there were deep clouds hiding in his eyes, too thick to dissolve.

"Yes!" Zhou Xuan climbed up on his knees on the poplar floor, reached out and grabbed the corner of the green felt, and pulled it down gently.

A black and heavy boulder stood impressively in front of his eyes, shaped like a gigantic turtle with its neck stretched out and its head held high, with a height of one foot and two feet and a radius of three feet and eight inches.On its broad tortoise back, there are veins of jade-like veins combined to form mysterious and simple patterns: the pattern of the unicorn is in the east, the chapter of the phoenix is ​​in the south, the picture of the white tiger is in the west, and the painting of the rhinoceros is in the north. .And in the center of the turtle's back, there are eight divine horses with wings and galloping with hooves!The eight flying horses are connected head to tail like a ring, arching around a circle that seems to be a natural deficit. In the afternoon, it will change"!
Seeing this stone, Zhou Xuan opened his mouth wide in shock, froze for a moment, then hurriedly picked up the green felt to cover it!

"Don't cover it—just let it be placed like that!" Cao Rui's voice was a little hoarse and dry, as if there was no moisture at all, "Zhou Aiqing—it was Meng Jian, the governor of Liangzhou, and Xu Miao, the prefect of Zhangye. The Liugu Xuanchuan River in Dan County was discovered on the third day of the first lunar month of this year, and it was pulled into the palace that night by a cart drawn by seven or eight horses with bridles..." At this point, his eyes suddenly lit up. : "Zhou Aiqing, you are good at astronomy and geography, you know everything, and you don't know everything - you should recognize He Shi, right?"

Zhou Xuan's whole body was like sifting chaff, he knelt on the floor tremblingly, stammeringly replied: "Qi... Your Majesty Qizuo, this... this stone came from...strange, old minister, no... no Dare to speak falsely."

"Let Ru say what you say, but it doesn't matter." Cao Rui obviously lost the patience of being "gentle and respectful" in the court meeting before, so he frowned and bumped over.

"Is this... This stone was deliberately forged?" Zhou Xuan said in a trembling voice, "How can such a strange stone come in this peaceful and prosperous age?"

"I have summoned a lot of skilled craftsmen to examine it carefully... They said that the patterns on this boulder seem to be carved but not carved, or engraved but not engraved, and it is not clear whether it is natural or man-made..." Cao Rui quietly Staring at the huge boulder, he said leisurely, "And the yellow-gray water rust and earth rust on this boulder have also been formed for many years, so it can't be done by someone in a hurry!" Speaking of this, He smiled a little self-consciously: "I also hope that it is artificially forged! That's why I summoned you to identify it! Zhou Aiqing—you can speak boldly! I forgive you for treating whatever you say today as meaningless." crime!"

Hearing that he spoke so earnestly, Zhou Xuan withdrew his face solemnly, and replied shyly: "Since your majesty is so interested in consulting the old minister, the old minister has spoken truthfully and bluntly - if the old minister knows correctly, this should be an ancient According to the classics, the "Spiritual Turtle Profound Stone" carrying the "Heluo Book" is often born when the destiny changes—I'm afraid it is an ominous thing for me, Great Wei!"

Before Cao Rui finished listening, his eyes were like ice knives on Zhou Xuan's face coldly, and he gritted his teeth loudly, but he didn't lose his composure—if these words came from someone else, Cao Rui would have already been Without hesitation, the general was dragged out and beheaded.But these words came from Zhou Xuan's mouth!This Zhou Xuan has always been divination like a god, and his calculations are correct: 15 years ago, he had accurately predicted the time when Taizu Wu Emperor Cao Cao would die, and left behind "five and five vertical and horizontal, black rats meet tigers; born The famous assertion of being a prime minister and proclaiming emperor after death" (the date of Cao Cao's death was the first month of the 25th year of Jian'an, the celestial stem and earthly branch of that year was "Gengzi", and the tiger was the first month, that is, the month of Wuyin.) Eighth Years ago, he once again accurately calculated the lifespan and time of death of Emperor Gaozuwen Cao Pi, leaving behind the assertion that "day after month, he will live eighty years; In the past month, I will live eighty years", which means that the number of days and nights is eighty, which means that Cao Pi can only live for forty days and forty nights, and he died of a sudden illness at the age of 40; Horse, climb straight to the sky" refers to the fact that Cao Pi should have died in the month of the horse in the year of the horse, and he did die in the month of Jiawu in the year of Bingwu).These past events are nothing more than Cao Rui himself. When he was worried about whether he would be able to successfully succeed to the throne, Zhou Xuan was also the first foreign minister to quietly present himself with a purple gold wishful to show his support— ——Sure enough, at the last moment, I was appointed as the crown prince by the first emperor himself.At the same time, he also understood the ingenious meaning of Zhou Xuan's gift of Zijin Ruyi back then: "Zijin Ruyi" means "Zi Jin Ruyi"!The wishful person, the so-called "whatever you want to do", implies that your ambition to succeed to the throne will finally come true after going through all kinds of calamities.It was Zhou Xuan's series of "hundred-tested, hundred-accurate" divination and deduction ability that Cao Rui had to be amazed at him and regarded him as a god!Therefore, at this moment, he could only suppress the fear in his chest, and declared to Zhou: "Zhou Aiqing, what kind of 'ominous omen' will this stone bring? Tell me carefully..."

"There is an ancient book that says, 'When a spirit turtle and a mysterious stone come out of the sky, there must be an earth-shaking change.' The so-called 'earth-shaking change' is nothing more than a change of destiny and a change of dynasty... The old minister deserves death, and I can only say this. Don’t dare to speak further!”

"Who? Who? Who can change my Wei Dynasty?" Cao Rui's cheeks flushed immediately, "Is it Zhuge Liang from the pseudo-Shu? Is it Sun Quan from the pseudo-Wu? I... I want to send troops immediately Send generals to destroy them..."

Zhou Xuan fell on the floor, touched his foreheads, and remained silent for a long time——Shu has the danger of lofty mountains, and Wu has the obstacles of the Yangtze River. How can His Majesty destroy them at the moment of his desire?

The more Cao Rui thought about it, the more extreme he became, and he said angrily: "How about I find a few tiger warriors to smash this demon stone into pieces?"

"Your Majesty, these natural strange stones are meant to be used as warnings. If they are destroyed by manpower, there may be even more unexpected disasters! Who dares to lighten the scourge of heaven?" Zhou Xuan finally plucked up his courage. , a little timidly advised.

"Then why don't you tell me what to do?" Cao Rui frowned and said heavily, "Is there really no way to divert and resolve it?"

Zhou Xuan pondered for a long time before he opened his mouth and said: "Your Majesty Qi Zuo, for the current plan, the old minister can only personally escort this piece of 'Spiritual Turtle Profound Stone' back to Liangzhou, and look for the local Kunlun Mountain's northern peak 'Xuanyin Soil'. The word "discuss" in the prophecy on the stone "Great Discussion Cao Yan" is stifled, and if it is changed to "Da Ji Cao Yan", it may be possible to turn misfortune into blessing and disaster into good fortune!"

"Well... very good! I have specially entrusted you to do this matter. After it is done, I will reward you very much."

"The old minister would like to obey the sacred order and do his best."

At this moment, Cao Rui slowly relaxed his heartstrings, and sat quietly on the throne dragon bed for a while, then suddenly remembered something, and asked Zhou Xuan: "That's right! Zhou Aiqing, I always remember that Chen Qun Sikong talked about his work when he died of illness last year. I had a strange dream, dreaming of a "nine-tailed spirit fox" standing on a tree, with nine branches hanging on the ground, very similar to the fall of the evening clouds... He explained to me that this meant that my big Wei had "dry and weak branches" The hidden danger of being strong and having a big tail that cannot be dropped. Zhou Aiqing, you have a deep understanding of dream interpretation, what do you think of what he said?"

Zhou Xuan thought for a moment, and said politely: "Your Majesty Qizuo, the 'nine-tailed spirit fox' appeared in the dream, which is a good omen rather than a bad sign. There is a saying in ancient books, 'In the past, Xibo Jichang won the nine-tailed fox when he climbed Qishan, Then Dongyi returned to Zhou; Wu Wangji sent out to Mengjin to take white fish, and the princes came to the court." He also said, "The nine-tailed fox is a metaphor for the nine concubines in the harem and the prosperity of their descendants." Therefore, Chen Sikong dreamed The 'nine-tailed spirit fox' is a great auspicious omen for the prosperity of our Great Wei Foundation! Your Majesty should be happy about this!"

Cao Rui originally had very few children, but when he heard what Zhou Xuan said, he couldn't help but feel a little joy on his face.He nodded slightly, and then asked slowly: "Zhou Aiqing, recently Sima Yi sent a foreign object from Yongzhou - it's a big three-cornered deer with pure white fur like snow, what's the sign?"

"The sign of the white deer?! Oh! Your Majesty, this is a beautiful event of great auspiciousness! In the past, Zhou Gongdan became a king, loyal to the sun and the moon, and had the tribute of Qishan Suzhi; now the General Sima respectfully accepts the appointment of Shaanxi, To be diligent in the affairs of the king, and to have the gift of the White Deer in Yongzhou—isn’t this an auspicious omen from ancient times, which is still far away today? Your Majesty can win the virtuousness of his ministers like General Sima. Not enough to worry about!"

After Cao Rui heard this, he didn't answer immediately, but pondered for a while, raised his eyes and took a deep look at Zhou Xuan: "If the omen of the White Deer can really be as you said, it will naturally be a great blessing for the great Wei Sheji. How about this, Zhou Aiqing, you will go to Yongliang and Liangzhou as my imperial envoy, on the surface to reward Sima Aiqing and his Guanzhong army, but secretly suppress the disaster with the method of recovery That demon stone!"

Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor
The mighty Yangtze River is like a giant dragon leaping forward, turning up layers of waves, white foam floating like flying snow and jade, which makes people dazzled.

There are rows of willow trees on the embankment, and the low-hanging willow branches sway gently when the river wind blows. From a distance, it looks like green smoke floating in the sky.

Sun Quan, the King of Wu, sat on his back on a black lacquered chariot inlaid with gold carried by four people, holding the handrails of jade-carved leopards on both sides with both hands, with a happy expression, walking leisurely in the half-thick and half-light shade of willows.Beside his chariot, the white-haired Fu Wu General and Lou Hou Zhang Zhao rode a blue and white zebra, walking slowly side by side with him.

(End of this chapter)