Yicheng, as the wartime capital after the fall of Dafeng Capital, has become a powerful place for powerful ministers and the emperor. Going south from here, traveling to the eight states and twenty-four cities, is the country that the orthodox royal family of Dafeng finally holds in their hands.
True character is revealed in times of crisis, and seven out of ten officials in the former imperial court turned traitor and surrendered to the enemy. Of the remaining 34/10, those who would rather die than surrender and those who would rather die than retreat account for another 23/10. Therefore, there are currently less than a thousand court officials in Yicheng. Emperor Dafeng once said in a court meeting: "Those who betray the country are traitors, those who sacrifice their lives and those who die in battle are now full of civil and military officials in the court. I can see two kinds of people at a glance. One is those who are cowardly and the other is those who are cowardly and do nothing. You are a person of unswerving loyalty. The former is because you are afraid of losing your reputation in the history books, and the latter is out of true justice for your family and country. Are the two different? Anyway, you will all become loyal and martyrs in the end. And I, in the end, will become The subjugated emperor who has been criticized by future generations!"
Obviously, Emperor Dafeng had obeyed fate and did his best. He did not want to leave a humiliating name in history, and he did not want to stain the dying Dafeng. As for whether he was imprisoned by the rebel leader or was killed by the rebels on the spot. Stabbed to death, he didn't care at all.
A middle-aged man with slightly frosty temples walked out of the emperor's palace, which was still and brightly lit like daylight.
Since many powerful court ministers have defected to the enemy, the previously unknown head of the Zhou family has become the most powerful minister in the orthodox imperial family today. All frontline battle situations, no matter how big or small, must be reviewed by the head of the Zhou family before being submitted to the emperor for review. After the emperor's court meeting, he often left the head of the Zhou family alone to handle political affairs. He stayed there for a whole day and even late into the night. Therefore, the head of the Zhou family had just left the emperor's palace at this moment. In fact, he had just finished helping the emperor handle political affairs and frontline military affairs.
After being exhausted all day long and into the middle of the night, the head of the family, Zhou Xu, was exhausted mentally and physically, and his eyesight turned black. He followed the palace maid holding a lantern, and could barely see what was in front of him.
Perhaps because he was too tired, he didn't notice that the maid leading the way had changed. Before leaving the palace late at night, it had always been the Emperor's maid who led the way, but this time it was a young girl who looked young.
There is no real palace in Yicheng anymore, so the temporary residence of the Zhou family is very close to the emperor. Not long after, the woman holding the lantern stopped, and Zhou Xu knew that she had arrived at the house without looking up at the plaque.
Next, logically, the palace maid who led the way should return, but under Zhou Xu's surprised gaze, she leaned over and put the big lantern on the ground aside, then picked up her skirt and walked up the steps, and directly opened the vermilion door. Walked in naturally.
Zhou Xu hurriedly followed her, and then he realized that the person holding a lantern to guide him was not His Majesty's maid, she was clearly a girl of fifteen or sixteen years old.
The square patio was illuminated by clear moonlight, and the ground was as clear as water.
The girl stood under the moonlight, no longer walking forward, her back to Zhou Xu, silent.
At that moment, the tired and sleepy head of the Zhou family suddenly woke up. He quickly took a few steps forward and said cautiously: "Ruirui?"
The girl finally turned around reluctantly and mumbled angrily: "I just recognized it, it's too late!"
Zhou Xu didn't know what to say for a while. He thought again and again, sorted through the words in his stomach, and swallowed again. So in the end, the only thing he could say was: "Why do you give dad such a surprise?" ?”
"Surprise?" The girl deliberately made her voice longer, smiled, narrowed her foxy eyes, and pretended to whisper: "Did you say something wrong by accident?"
Zhou Xu looked sincere and quickly shook his head in denial, "No way."
The girl nodded, with an expression of "a woman who knows her father better than a daughter", put a green finger on her cheek, and said harmlessly: "You little girl, why are you fooling around without sleeping at night? How dare you sneak up in the middle of the night? Go out, do you know that there are bad people everywhere now! See if I don’t give you a hard slap! Oh, forget it, it’s better not to say that. After all, my daughter is worried about you. Not only is it unappreciative, but it will make her sad. What a careless little ancestor! Just follow her this time and coax her, and next time you have to ask the people in the house to watch over her."
The girl's final finishing touch was: "You carry a lantern to light the way? Your father is busy enough, so don't cause any trouble to your father!"
It is true that "a daughter knows her father better than her", and all her thoughts have been seen through. Zhou Xu sighed and admitted openly, "It's unsafe to go out at night. Dad will be dissatisfied because he is worried about you. Since you know everything, you should also understand dad's hard work."
"So is dad really blaming Ruirui?"
The girl's eyes suddenly turned red and her voice trembled: "How long can we hold on? Half a year, or three months? Maybe it will be tomorrow? My daughter and mother are willing to stay with daddy all the time, so they came here. But daddy What about you? In this life, you only have endless government affairs to deal with, but Ruirui, who you keep shouting about, actually doesn't matter to you at all, right? "
"Dafeng's last moment, our last moment, dad's last moment, and Ruirui's last moment. In this last moment, can't dad be with his family? My daughter is sixteen years old this year, but dad has never been with his daughter One day? What kind of books my daughter likes to read, what kind of food she likes to eat, what kind of hairpins and necklaces she likes, does daddy know any of these? "
The girl's cheeks were glistening with tears.
The moon is like frost on the ground.
She glanced at him almost callously, stepped back slightly, and said calmly: "It's getting late. Daddy will be busy tomorrow, so go to bed early."
She turned around and left, as if she were stepping on snow, leaving deep and shallow footprints along the way.
Zhou Xu looked at her leaving back, his lips trembled, and he hesitated to speak several times.
He slowly squatted down, stretched out his fingers to touch the ground, and then put them into his mouth, showing a look of great sadness.
It turned out that a bitter and salty taste melted in the mouth.
It turns out that the moon is not as bright as frost, but as salt and frost.
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Since Guiqing returned home quietly, the palace has established two new rules. One is that the curfew time is advanced by one hour, and the other is that there are no longer patrols by the imperial army and military personnel at night.
Obviously these two rules are contradictory. Since we want to strengthen the security of the palace at night and extend the curfew time, shouldn't we increase the intensity of inspections? On the contrary, if the palace no longer uses inspections, why should we extend the curfew time?
Of course, even if all the nobles in the palace racked their brains, they would not associate this matter with Her Royal Highness, unless they knew that this iceberg beauty princess was the Lord of Fengdu who could compete with Shinto thousands of years ago.
There are two reasons why these two rules are established.
First, the saint in charge of the palace changed again. At first, it was Qin Fang, who was at the peak of the Eight Realms. After her cultivation was lost, the national master was in charge. Now that Gui Qing has returned home, a "twelve realms" have appeared in the Dajing Dynasty, which can be said to be A truly invincible existence in the world, so she naturally took over the position of "sitting saint".
Because of this, she can clearly perceive everything in the palace, where it is, and she can see the mountains and rivers at a glance, so she no longer needs the patrols of the imperial army and warriors.
As for these forbidden troops and warriors, quite a few have been quietly hidden and used for other purposes.
This is also the second reason.
On the night when Guiqing returned home, Qin Fang, the national master, and the Taoist priest Lotus Crown, three people with the highest chess skills, conspired together, discussed and decided on something shocking.
"Build a Fengdu capital."
According to the deductions of these three people, after the co-master of Shinto ascends to heaven, it will take at least a hundred years to reshape Shinto.
Compared to the divine way, which has taken thousands of years to reach in the human world, it is like the difference between an ant and a giant.
Therefore, a hundred years later, how can the world protect itself?
This is the way to build a Fengdu capital, turn the entire capital into a "little Fengdu", and then let the purely humanistic Lord of Fengdu take charge.
After Qin Fang thought about it for a long time, when she approached Gui Qing to talk about the matter, the latter did not think twice and gave the answer: "That's exactly what my daughter meant. If my mother doesn't tell her daughter today, my daughter will take the initiative in the future." Talk to mother."
So after all four people had this idea, Fengdu Capital began to quietly build, and it was not a city built inside the city, nor a city built outside the city, but a more shocking and unimaginable massive fortification.
The entire underground of the capital city will be hollowed out, and then massive construction will be carried out. The newly built Fengdu Capital will be exactly the same as the capital on the ground in terms of shape and scale.
This century-old plan to counter Shinto is extremely difficult to put into practice. Even if we omit all the many problems that may be encountered after the groundbreaking, there are still two most fatal problems. For example, the number of workers is obviously insufficient, and another example is the increased financial burden.
To elaborate on the former, it is obviously impossible to complete the construction of an underground capital by relying on the imperial army and warriors alone. Civilians must be recruited. This move will undoubtedly attract complaints from the people. Moreover, even if millions of civilians are recruited, they are afraid that "the secret of heaven will be leaked" and the Shinto co-lord will know about it, so these civilians may end up being "killed" in the end. By then, the world will be filled with resentment and upheaval. It is very likely that the Dajing Dynasty will encounter a "human calamity" that will overturn the country before it can survive the "natural calamity".
To talk about the latter in detail, the Dajing Dynasty has always taken "recuperation and recuperation" as its basic national policy, with clear administration and low tax collection. Therefore, the national treasury has always been small, at least it is not a mountain of gold and silver, leaning against it like a mountain. The current financial resources of the Dajing Dynasty are completely unable to afford this huge fortification that is like a bottomless pit. To take a step back, even if you can afford it, it is impossible to hide the huge financial expenses. "Everywhere in the world pays taxes every year, and loads of money are piled into the treasury. How come there are less statistics every year?" This is based on being able to afford financial expenses. The Ministry of Household Affairs is most likely in the imperial court. In front of all the civil and military officials, he spoke the words of questioning that the emperor listened to.
In the final analysis, it is still too difficult to confront the Shinto that is as bright as the sun with the power of a country.
But if one country can’t do it, what about two countries?
This sentence was spoken by Gui Liu, and this was also the reason why Gui Liu stayed in the Dafeng Dynasty and did not return home.
He had long heard that Guiqing wanted to build a Fengdu capital.
And this man's idea is very simple: to help the Dafeng royal family repel the rebels, then destroy the Dafeng royal family, and finally support the real legitimate emperor of Dafeng.
And he already has a preliminary candidate in mind.
Dafeng Zhengtong, the grandson of the emperor's master, Zhang Hu.
