Queen Sun

Chapter 23 Sui Shu
Afterwards, Li Shimin curiously asked what his wife had said to Empress Xiao, and Ruoshui casually replied that it was just an old story.

The emperor was quite dissatisfied with Ruoshui's prevarication, so he insisted on asking.

Ruoshui then said calmly: "If I were Empress Xiao, Yang Guang would not live alone after death."

Li Shimin was surprised with joy, but that touch was soon extinguished by his wife's next words.

"Living like that is really tiring." Ruoshui said coldly looking at the pavilion in the distance.

Li Shimin looked at his wife's beautiful profile, and suddenly felt that she seemed to be getting further away from him all of a sudden.

So, in the days that followed, unknowingly, there was some unreasonable alienation between the two of them.

The emperor no longer had to go to the Lizheng Hall to deal with government affairs every day, and the long-standing servants in the Ganlu Hall became more frequent.

Mingxia looked at the expressionless young lady worriedly, and seemed to have gradually recovered her previous indifference, but luckily it was only when she was facing the emperor.

"Oh!" Ruoshui cried out in pain softly, "Mingxia, what's the matter with you recently?"

Mingxia looked at the small tuft of hair on the comb in fear: "Miss, I..."

Lianyun took the comb, and gently combed Ruoshui's hair: "She has been worried about Miss recently."

"What's there to worry about, your lady is still the queen." Ruoshui joked.

"But," Mingxia looked up at Ruoshui, "but recently, the palace is saying that Miss has fallen out of favor."

"Falling out of favor?" Ruoshui laughed even harder, "You've been with me for so long, when do you think I've been loved?"

Mingxia did not expect to hear this answer, and said in awe, "But since Miss returned to the palace, His Majesty has hardly spent the night in other places."

"That's abnormal, do you think the emperor's harem is just for decoration?" Ruoshui's smile narrowed, "The most important duty of a queen is not to be favored, but to maintain the order of the harem, otherwise why has there been a mother in the world since ancient times? Say?"

Mingxia nodded her head, but when she stepped back, she seemed a little unwilling: "Miss, but didn't you get along very well with His Majesty before?"

Ruoshui glanced at the unyielding girl, and said helplessly: "In the past few years, your Majesty has no intention of having a harem due to internal and external troubles. But now that the world is settled, and seeing that a big order is about to be completed, those people in the harem are not waiting to make a fuss. Miss Jia, am I worthy of causing those troubles?"

"Miss, you didn't do it on purpose that day, did you?" Dan Yun couldn't help asking.

Ruoshui shook his head and said: "It's not all. These days, I always feel that my heart is panicked, and I get very impatient when I see too many outsiders."

The two servant girls looked at each other helplessly, and even His Majesty was regarded as an outsider, so there was really nothing to persuade.

The children were naturally sensitive to the difference between their parents, but there was nothing they could do, so they had to try their best to stay with their mother who treated them more kindly.

While having dinner that day, Ruoshui frowned and looked at his second son who was getting thinner and thinner: "Qing Que, have you eaten well recently?"

Li Tai smiled awkwardly, and replied in a low voice, "Of course."

At this time, Ming Yao exposed her brother's lie: "Mother, brother Qingque has been pestering Wei Zheng recently, sometimes staying in the history museum for a whole day."

"No matter how busy you are, you still have to eat." Ruoshui said distressedly, "Didn't you ask Fang Xuanling to be your tutor before? Why did Wei Zheng get involved?"

Li Tai's eyes suddenly became bright, and he said as if offering a treasure: "Mother, Mr. Wei was recently assigned by his father to write "Sui Shu", and my son has benefited a lot from watching."

Ruoshui felt the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. One of the eldest grandson's two sons became a workaholic and the other a bookworm.But that's better than the two brothers fighting each other, she comforted herself.

"Mother, Emperor Sui Yang is really a fatuous tyrant." Li Tai's still slightly immature voice carried clear contempt.

Ruo Shui's heart suddenly felt cold, that's right, it was from the Tang Dynasty that later generations began to infamy Emperor Sui Yang as fatuous, cruel, and inhumane.She glanced at her son and daughter hesitantly. They are both Li Tang's orthodox royal blood. Should she...

Noticing the mother's unusual silence, both of them looked at the solemn Ruoshui with some anxiety, not knowing what they said wrong.

"Qingque," Ruoshui finally said, "The losers since ancient times have no right to speak. Emperor Sui Yang is certainly the king of subjugation, but it doesn't mean that everything about him is useless. In other words, Do you understand?"

Li Tai asked suspiciously: "But mother, Master Wei and Dad didn't say that."

"Yang Guang did a lot of immoral things. He conquered Goryeo three times and dug a canal, which scattered countless wives and children, and the people were destitute. But at the same time, he also opened a department to become an official, breaking the gentry's monopoly on state power. .Even today, it is the excavation of the Grand Canal that facilitates water transportation, and it is the people of Datang that benefit today. Wouldn’t it be unfair to just call him a tyrant? History books should be a kind of An objective description of any personal prejudice, just like the historian’s undisguised satire on Zheng Zhuanggong in "Zuo Zhuan", or Sima Qian's unreserved praise for Xiang Yu in "Historical Records", and even put it in the emperor's book." Said Here, Ruoshui stopped, looking thoughtfully at the two children who were lost in thought.

After a long time, she saw a trace of justice in the eyes of Li Tai and Ming Yao, so she smiled gratifiedly.

But who knows, it was just a conversation between mother and child, but it aroused the emperor's wrath.

Ganlu Temple.

This is the first time that Ruoshui has stepped into this palace so far. Unlike Lizheng Hall, which is simple and elegant, Ganlu Hall obviously carries the nobility of an emperor and a hint of ambiguity.Except for the queen, the rest of the concubines will accept the emperor's favor here.

When Ruoshui walked into the emperor's bedroom calmly, he only saw a tall figure with his back turned to him, and he didn't know what to write on the table.

When she greeted Ann with the usual tone, Li Shimin said coldly with a gloomy face, "Does the Empress know what Qing Que and Wei Zheng said today?"

Ruoshui was taken aback for a moment, and then replied calmly, "Is it about the "Sui Shu"?"

"My son actually said that Yang Guang is not just a tyrant, what a shame it is, it's outrageous!" the emperor yelled at Ruoshui.

Ruoshui didn't speak, stared at the man in front of him for a moment, then raised his voice outside: "Zheng Ji, come in."

Zheng Ji tremblingly took a step inside, only to hear the queen's solemn and solemn voice: "I order everyone to retreat to the outer hall, and no one is allowed to enter without the call of my palace."

"Yes..." Zheng Ji glanced at the emperor hesitantly, "But, ma'am, today His Majesty announced that the king's concubine will be in bed, and later..."

Ruoshui smiled slightly, but it made Zheng Ji feel cold: "Let Concubine Wang wait in the outer hall first, by the way, the wind at night is still a bit cold, remember to put on an extra dress for her."

As soon as the words fell, Zheng Ji withdrew with a sigh of relief.

In the huge inner room, there was a dead silence.

"My servant, the queen is very used to ordering her around." Li Shimin looked at the scene just now with cold eyes, and said mockingly.

Ruoshui ignored the other party's sarcasm at all, and went straight to the side table with tea leaves, cleaned the cup, washed the tea, poured water, and poured the tea in one go, and then quietly put the teacup in front of the emperor: "Your Majesty is here Did the angry concubine tell the truth?"

Li Shimin raised his eyes from his teacup, suppressing unmistakable anger in his low voice: "The truth? Could it be that Yang Guang is a wise king, and I am a foolish one?"

Ruoshui was a little displeased with the other party's out of context, and his face turned cold: "We all know that the Sui Dynasty was destroyed on the Grand Canal and the three expeditions to Koryo. Your Majesty should think about it, whether the Grand Canal has a great effect on the world , Is the deterrent force of the three conquests of Korea still there?"

"That's the result of Yang Guang's great success, greed for vanity, and self-willedness. It is no exaggeration to say that he is a fatuous person." Li Shimin's eyes flashed a gloomy coldness.

Ruoshui looked at him lightly, this is a completely unfamiliar Li Shimin: "Yang Guang is just a person who has fallen into the face of unlimited power and cannot extricate himself. He puts his personal desires above the interests of the country. No, and there will never be less in the future. Why does Your Majesty speak of him so heinously?"

Li Shimin grabbed the teacup on the case table and threw it at Ruoshui: "Do you have the consciousness of being the queen of the Tang Dynasty?"

If the water didn't dodge, and let the hot tea splash on her skirt, she suddenly smiled softly: "Your Majesty, what are you afraid of?" There was a hint of sarcasm and sharpness in her words.

A trace of remorse flashed in Li Shimin's eyes, and he evaded: "I am the Son of Heaven, what is there to be afraid of?"

Ruoshui smiled coldly, but his face remained calm: "Speaking of which, Yang Guang is still His Majesty's cousin, that's all. It's just that you all became famous at a young age, killed your brothers and seized the throne, and he is just like the one in your heart." A mirror, always reminding you of what to do and what not to do, just because you're afraid of repeating his mistakes, isn't it?"

Li Shimin closed his eyes slowly, with a lot of anger in his heart but no way to vent it. Yes, there is such a forbidden place in his heart. After returning from Xuanwumen, it has become an inescapable nightmare, but no one, no one in this world can It's even more unacceptable for Ruo Shui to speak out like this.He slowly stretched out his finger and pointed to the door: "Get out, get out, you go and think about how to be my queen."

Ruoshui laughed back in anger, don't talk about Yang Guang, if it weren't for the great rule of Zhenguan in the first ten years, maybe a prosperous age would be ruined by Li Shimin's gradual failure in the next ten years.

Li Shimin looked at the figure of his wife walking away, and couldn't help showing a bitter smile on the corner of his mouth. As long as he listened to her cold sarcasm, he could clearly feel his weakness that he could never hide.

Compared to Wei Zheng, or Yang Guang, she is her real mirror, as clear as crystal.

(End of this chapter)