Everyone was startled and turned their heads quickly.
The speaker was none other than their commander, General Wang Shaoji of Youtun Guard.
I saw him sneer and say: "The people who really caused your brothers to get stabbed and even be exiled and have their homes confiscated are still living well now, but you only think about fighting these Jiangdu Palace defenders who will never be able to make a difference in their lives. Looking for trouble, is this useful?"
Upon hearing this, everyone became quiet.
One of the guards asked carefully: "General, tell me - who is the person who really harmed us?"
Wang Shaoji glanced at him.
Fu Jiang, another general following him, immediately said: "You don't know, right? In fact, as soon as the incident broke out, the general went to see His Majesty and requested that the Jiangdu Palace defenders be punished. Your Majesty originally I have already agreed. But——"
When everyone heard this, they hurriedly asked: "But what?"
"However, someone dissuaded Your Majesty."
"who is it?"
Wang Shaoji glanced at them, and then said slowly: "That is the young lady of the Yuwen family, Shang Ruyi, who is hidden in the deep palace by His Majesty and loved by thousands of people."
"..."
"It's because of her that your Majesty did not deal with the guards at Jiangdu Palace, but instead severely punished our Imperial Guards."
Upon hearing this name, the guards frowned.
In fact, they were not very interested in this woman. Although in Yanmen County, the emperor carried her injured all the way back to the government office in front of everyone, which made everyone very excited and talked about it for a while, but After the emperor cut out the tongues of several people, no one dared to mention it again because it frightened the monkeys. As time went by, they gradually forgot about it.
This time, this woman obviously did not go south, but she suddenly appeared in Jiangdu Palace, and was placed in the inner palace by the emperor's "Golden House Cangjiao". Everyone chewed her in their mouths, but they could only say a few words. Affair.
But now Wang Shaoji told everyone that it was because of her that the emperor ordered the punishment of the imperial guards.
Someone immediately said angrily: "Damn it, who is that woman? She dared to talk nonsense in front of the emperor, causing our brother to be beheaded and his home to be confiscated and exiled."
"She is the young lady of the Yuwen family. The people in the Yuwen family don't get along with us."
"That's right. Don't the people from the Yuwen family usually cause us little trouble?"
Seeing everyone yelling at each other, Wang Shaoji and Fu Jiang looked at each other, and Fu Jiang said: "Not only that, we also saw the young lady and the Jiangdu Palace defender during our patrol. The deputy commander-in-chief met, the two of them secretly said something, and they seemed to know each other very well."
Upon hearing this, everyone became even more angry.
"So, she is deliberately favoring the Jiangdu Palace defenders!"
"With a woman like her by the Emperor's side, can those of us in the Imperial Guard live in peace?"
…
Seeing everyone getting more and more angry and cursing at Shang Ruyi, Wang Shaoji smiled coldly and turned around and left.
Taking advantage of the darkness, he returned to his residence. When he was about to go back to his room to rest, he caught a glimpse of the light on in the study room next to him. After thinking about it, he opened the door and walked in.
He doesn't come to this study often, and he's not used to the strong smell of ink in the room, because he hasn't liked studying since he was a child. However, as if to make up for his frivolous problem, there is someone beside him who has loved reading since he was a child. Reading almost grew up in books. ….
At this moment, hearing the sound of him pushing the door open, the man sitting in front of the candlestick holding a book slowly raised his head.
The shining candlelight illuminated a face very similar to Wang Shaoji's, with the same high cheekbones and slanted eyes, but the whole person looked more bookish than Wang Shaoji, and because of his haggard expression, he gave people The feeling seems gentle and harmless, making it easy to trust.
He is Wang Shaoqiu, Wang Shaoji's brother and secretary to the Provincial Shaojian.
Although the two share the same mother and have a good relationship, Wang Shaoqiu has been frail and sick since he was a child. Compared to Wang Shaoqiu who won military honors and was successfully promoted to general after just a few years in the army.
In the army, and became the emperor's trusted brother, his official career was very bumpy. Because of his weak body, he could not serve in the army. He had worked in the Ministry of Rites for several years and took a rest due to illness. It was not until his health improved a while ago that he became a secretary. Province, this time I can follow the emperor south smoothly.
He said: "Brother, you are back."
As soon as he saw him, Wang Shaoji showed a smile on his face, walked over and said, "Your method is effective."
"oh?"
Wang Shaoqiu originally planned to continue reading with his head down, but when he heard this, he looked up from the book and saw Wang Shaoji excitedly saying: "I only mentioned a few words to my people, and now, they are all angry about that It’s gone to Shang Ruyi.”
"..."
"Hmph, this *** has embarrassed me several times before. This time, I can't let her show off her power like that again."
"..."
"While Yu Wenye is away, I must make her look good!"
Wang Shaoqiu glanced at him, lowered his head calmly, and said: "Brother, if you can only see one woman in your eyes, if you try every means to only care about one woman, then your path will not be long. "
Wang Shaoji frowned when he heard this: "What do you mean?"
Wang Shaoqiu was silent for a moment, closed the book and slowly put it down, then looked up at him: "I asked my brother to provoke the dissatisfaction of the imperial guards, not just to let them deal with that Shang Ruyi. This woman is just a pawn. , life and death have no value or meaning at all except to make you happy, brother."
Wang Shaoji's brows furrowed even more tightly: "If it's not to deal with Shang Ruyi, then you - who else are you going to deal with?"
Wang Shaoqiu looked up at him, with a cold light shining in his slender eyes.
Wang Shaoji felt vaguely uneasy in his heart. Although he was known as a frivolous young man in the world, he usually liked to be domineering and oppress good people, and even framed Zhongliang in the court, but his evil deeds did not stop there; speaking of it, in fact, he I have always known that my brother looks weak and harmless, but he has bigger intentions than anyone else. He even has more serious intentions and more vicious methods than me.
However, there was never blood on his hands.
Now that he heard his words, Wang Shaoji felt vaguely that his purpose in letting himself say those words to anger his subordinates was not simple.
So, he asked again: "What else are you going to do?"
"..."
Wang Shaoqiu did not answer him immediately, but looked at him silently for a long time, and then asked: "Brother, do you want to stay in Jiangdu forever?"...
Wang Shaoji immediately said: "Of course not."
"..."
"Our family is from the north. We have already suffered some injuries when we moved from Daxing City to Dongdu. This time we come to the south. We are not familiar with the place. If we stay here all the time, we will be even more injured. , we have become even more helpless and lonely ghosts!"
"..."
"Besides, the gentry in the south have always been fighting for power with us, but we cannot let them get what they want."
"Let me ask my brother again, you don't want to stay in Jiangdu, but what do you think His Majesty thinks?"
"His Majesty?"
Mentioning this, Wang Shaoji's face darkened again: "Now he is hiding in the inner palace every day, drinking, dancing with swords, and doing some shameful things with that bitch. How could he even think about returning to the north?"
"Then, brother, do you dare to persuade His Majesty to return to the Eastern Capital?"
"Ji Nayan and those from the Ministry of Rites were killed and demoted. Who dares to go?"
Wang Shaoqiu nodded: "That's right."
Wang Shaoji was stunned: "What's wrong?"
Wang Shaoqiu said: "Persuasion doesn't work; stay, you can't stay. Then the only thing we can do now is what we should do. Don't you understand, brother?"
"..."
"Brother, soldiers and horses are the most valuable in troubled times, not only because they can protect you in war, but more importantly, at some critical moments, having soldiers and horses in your hands can accomplish things."
Wang Shaoji looked at him blankly. After a while, a light suddenly flashed in his eyes, and he suddenly understood.
"You, you want-"
Wang Shaoji was shocked and frightened. He almost jumped up. He didn't dare to say a word of the next words. He swallowed them back and looked at Wang Shaoqiu with a horrified expression.
He pointed one finger at Wang Shaoqiu, his fingertips were shaking, his throat was blocked for a while, and then he said hoarsely: "You, you are so brave!"
At this moment, Wang Shaoqiu suddenly said: "Who?"
Wang Shaoji was startled again and hurriedly followed his gaze to look behind him, only to realize that he had not closed the door when he came in. A slim figure flashed outside the door and walked in slowly.
I saw this beauty in a green dress, walking slowly. Although she had only walked a few steps, her willow waist was swaying in an attractive way. There was also a refreshing body fragrance floating in the wind. Although Wang Shaoji had just been scared out He was covered in cold sweat, but when he saw her, he felt a little fascinated.
This beauty is none other than his concubine, Lu Xiao.
I saw this charming beauty slowly walking in from the outside, smiling and saying, "Second Young Master has a good ear. You heard me just after I came here."
Wang Shaoqiu frowned: "What are you doing here?"
Lu Xiao glanced at him with a smile, then glanced at Wang Shaoji beside her, pouted and said aggrievedly: "I was waiting for the young master in the room. Just now, I finally heard the young master's footsteps, but she refused to reply. House. I thought the vixen came from somewhere and lost the young master. Fortunately, I came over and saw that it was the second young master."
Wang Shaoqiu was not very good at dealing with women, so he just frowned and stopped talking.
As soon as Wang Shaoji saw her, his whole body became hot, and he didn't care to say anything more to his brothers. He walked forward and took her into his arms. The two of them joked about it. He turned around and said, "I have something to do tomorrow." Let’s talk about it later, I’ll get busy first.”
After saying that, he took Lu Xiao back to the room.
After a while, some unpleasant sounds came from the night.
Wang Shaoqiu sat in the study, quietly looking at the book in his hand, but until late at night, he did not turn another page. .
Leng Qingshan
