That was probably the most unforgettable pain in his life. When Gu Yun said this, he did not want to continue. However, perhaps because those words had been in his heart for many years, he could not stop himself from saying them.
"Beijiang is really bitter. After the war, there are wounded soldiers everywhere. Every day, the sun sets in the yellow sand. I can't even drink a sip of hot tea in the princess' tent. How can it compare to being a young master in the capital? At first, I insisted on going back, but The Old Marquis refused. He was annoyed by me and brought me to the barracks. Every day, when the soldiers of the Black Iron Battalion were training, I had to accompany them to practice martial arts. If I slacked off, he would beat me in front of those iron giants. "
The Old Marquis knew his son's temper. Although he was naughty and spoiled, in front of everyone, even if this little thing was not as tall as someone's thigh, he would never cry and embarrass himself.
Changgeng leaned on him and rested his chin on Gu Yun's shoulder. He leaned close to his ear and said, "If I was born twenty years earlier, I would have carried you away and raised you well in the brocade forest."
Gu Yun imagined that scene and was speechless. He did not know whether to laugh or cry.
In fact, thinking about it carefully, there were many families that declined after three generations. For a child of Gu Yun's background and only child, if he was really allowed to grow up lawlessly in the capital, who knows how mischievous he would be when he grew up. The Old Marquis was so cruel that he could punish him so that the Black Iron Battalion would not be without a successor.
However, no one expected that the price of becoming a talent was so high.
"Uncle Wang said that your temperament changed after you came back from Beijiang. You don't like to see people and don't care about anyone." Changgeng paused for a moment, pulled his hand and wrote, "Do you hate the late emperor?"
Gu Yun paused and subconsciously wanted to touch the wine pot at his waist. When he reached out, he remembered that he had decided to quit drinking and did not have the wine pot with him.
Gu Yun pursed his lips, "I don't hate … Pour me a cup of tea."
Changgeng almost thought that he had misheard.
The siege of the capital had just been lifted, and Gu Yun was so injured that she couldn't even get up. Yet, the moment she opened her mouth, she still recklessly asked for wine. How did she know how to recuperate after going to the Western Regions and fighting a battle?
Although Changgeng had always been critical of this drunkard, seeing his sudden change in attitude, his heart skipped a beat. Instead of being happy, he was shocked. He got up and made a cup of spring tea for Gu Yun. Once again, he was worried and paranoid. Without batting an eyelid, he grabbed Gu Yun's wrist. He hated himself for not being good enough and not being able to figure out anything.
Although it was inconvenient for him to hear and see, Gu Yun could still feel his nervousness. He immediately reacted and realized that he had given himself away. Chang Geng was too sensitive. If a person had a bad record, he might as well just stay bad. The people who followed him around to clean him up were already used to it. On the contrary, Chang Geng's sudden change in personality made people at a loss.
Thus, Gu Yun drank the tea as if nothing had happened and licked his lips, "I don't know where the wine pot is. Do you still have the self-made wine that Old Shen sent last time?"
This sentence sounded more like Gu Yun's style. After all, he was thirsty from talking for a long time. Changgeng was slightly relieved and flatly refused, "No, I'll just make do with the tea."
Gu Yun made a half-serious "tsk" sound. Then, something was sent to the side of his mouth. A sticky and sweet smell of glutinous rice entered his nose. Gu Yun leaned back, "What's this? I don't want it … Oh … "
Changgeng held it in his mouth and fed it to him.
Gu Yun frowned. He naturally did not like to eat sweet things. He was choked by Changgeng and that piece of tea, but he did not spit it out. Just like the egg noodles with half an eggshell in it many years ago, he ate it in one gulp. From the overly sweet bean paste filling, he chewed a little bitterness that was too sweet.
He suddenly felt a little uneasy. He felt that Changgeng's greasy energy was abnormal. The sudden tension and paranoia when he heard that he did not drink was also abnormal.
Extreme great sorrow and great joy usually did not last long because it consumed too much energy. Usually, it would only last for a short while. After that, it would either turn into numbness and chaos, or the person involved would divert his attention to dilute these emotions to protect himself instinctively.
Gu Yun said seriously, "Changgeng, give me the glaze mirror."
"No," Changgeng encircled him from the side in a similar manner as if he was imprisoning him. He asked relentlessly, "Why don't you hate him?"
His last question was fervent and indifferent. He was so eager to get to the bottom of the matter. He wanted to get an answer of "hate" or "not hate". It was as if he would take action as long as Gu Yun admitted that he hated him.
He was so indifferent that he seemed to have forgotten that the "late Emperor" in his mouth was his biological father. He casually mentioned him as if he was talking about a cat or a dog by the roadside.
Gu Yun's heart sank slightly. After a moment of silence, he asked, "What about you? Do you still hate Hu Ge 'er now? "
Changgeng did not expect him to throw the question back at him. He blinked his eyes in surprise. If Gu Yun could see clearly at this moment, he would find that his eyes were not red anymore. However, there were still double shadows in his pupils.
Changgeng replied in a dignified manner, "If she was still in front of me, I would definitely skin her alive and pull out her tendons. However, she has already died without a burial place. Even if I wanted to dig her out and whip her corpse, it would be futile. No matter how much I hate her, there is no way to resolve it. Instead, it will speed up the poison as she wishes, right?"
These were definitely not his true words. Gu Yun could hear it no matter how big his heart was or how deaf his ears were.
Gu Yun was about to speak when he suddenly felt the person leaning on him tremble. It was the kind of tremor that came when one was suddenly interrupted while concentrating.
A thin breeze blew behind him. It seemed that someone had knocked on the door of the study.
Gu Yun turned his head and asked, "Is it Uncle Wang or Old Huo?"
The old housekeeper at the door raised his voice and shouted, "Marquis, it's me. Someone from the Lingshu Temple is here to look for His Royal Highness Yan Wang!"
Changgeng's double pupils shrank back. At first glance, it seemed that he had been stimulated by a strong light. He subconsciously let go of Gu Yun and revealed a bit of restraint as usual. Halfway through his restraint, he thought of something and a blank expression flashed across his face.
Gu Yun pretended not to notice, "Go do your business. I haven't had a proper meal for a few days. I'm going to find something to eat. Just now, you stuffed something into my mouth that I don't know … It made my stomach churn."
Changgeng was stunned at first. Then, he fiercely slapped his forehead and rubbed his eyebrows in annoyance, "I … that … I really …"
He stood up and said in a panic, "I'll ask the kitchen to make something for you to digest."
Uncle Wang hurriedly said, "Yes, this old servant will go now."
Changgeng walked to the door of the study in one breath. Then, he thought of something and searched his body. He took out Gu Yun's glass mirror and returned it to Uncle Wang. The metal chain and frame were warm from his touch. Changgeng carefully wiped the mirror clean and placed it on Gu Yun's nose. His gaze lingered on Gu Yun's face for a long time. Suddenly, he whispered, "Zi Xi, I feel like I'm dreaming."
Gu Yun was tormented by his strange nagging for the entire afternoon. When she heard this, she was very angry and wanted to say, "I'll slap you and see if it hurts."
However, before she could say anything, Changgeng paused slightly and stood up straight. He smiled bitterly and self-mockingly, "I've never had such a good dream in my life. It's good that I can't wake up."
Gu Yun, "…"
As soon as he returned to normal, Gu Yun couldn't bear to scold him harshly. He felt that if this happened a few more times, he would have to follow suit. He could only put on a calm appearance, unable to distinguish between joy and anger, and waved his hand to dismiss him.
Long An's eighth summer, although Marshal Gu had been offending the Taisui fungus, Daliang's national fortune seemed to have slowly recovered after falling to the bottom of the valley. It was like after a long winter, under the boundless white snow, bits and pieces of sprouts began to emerge.
At the beginning of summer, the Marquis of Stability quickly pacified the chaos in the western vassal states and signed the "New Silk Road Treaty". The Black Iron Battalion escorted the purple gold tributes from the western regions to the capital.
At this point, under the siege of Daliang, there was finally an opening.
Shen Yi and the others had just arrived when another piece of good news came from the Lingshu Temple.
Gu Yun's big iron bow, which had been unable to be promoted in the army, finally had a new breakthrough. Ge Chen, a rising star from a butcher family, was indeed a genius. He had designed a brand new golden box that was extremely light and could be installed on a bow and arrow. It could be perfectly controlled by human hands.
Originally, only peerless experts could pull the bowstring of the iron bow. The weight of the bowstring had been reduced by more than half. It could be effortlessly shot with both hands. The accuracy was extremely high. The iron arrow was heavy and would not be easily affected by the wind. Once this batch of bows was produced on a large scale, the white bow would disappear from Daliang's army. Furthermore, the iron arrow could be added with a lighter system. After the special iron arrow was shot, it could be accelerated twice in the air and could even explode in the enemy's ranks.
At the end of June, under the situation where the Black Iron Battalion was eyeing covetously and the conflict in the western countries gradually became prominent, the war situation in the north and south temporarily stabilized. Daliang was able to take a breather. The entire court knew that the most important thing now was to calm the hearts of the people, especially the refugees who had been exiled by the war.
But how were they going to recuperate? How were they going to settle down?
It was absolutely impossible to rearrange the land for these refugees. Which lord would be so noble and virtuous as to give up their own land for others to share?
The Grand Council organized a few court meetings to gather the officials to discuss, but in the end, they did not come to a conclusion. They only collected a pile of rotten ideas, such as organizing refugees to open up wastelands and so on. This angered the Emperor Long An so much that he flew into a rage in court and accused the officials of doing nothing. "Why don't you all say that we should gather the refugees and send them to the East Sea to imitate the elite guards?"
Suddenly, Prince Yan of the Grand Council took the lead in remaining silent. He also did not express his position. The Six Ministries and various local officials pushed the blame to each other and quarreled in court. At this time, Du Wanquan brought his 13 merchants from all over the country to write to the court. They stated that they were willing to imitate the westerners and set up private factories in various places to gather refugees from all over the country for production.
In this way, they would not need much land. At the time, Changgeng had confiscated land from corrupt officials who had dealt with the refugees along the canal. They also planned to use the farming puppets from Jiangnan as a blueprint and gather a group of civilian long-armed engineers to create a series of civilian lighters.
With the release of the second batch of fire beacon tickets, an undercurrent of power gradually coalesced in the court. When they were dormant and did not move, at first glance, they did not seem to form a faction. However, at this time, they secretly began to push for this matter. They urged the Emperor Long An to give some special rights to the civilian merchants who stood up first to carry the fire beacon tickets. For example, they could directly write to the Grand Council and ask the Emperor himself for special approval. Then, under the condition that the military supplies were guaranteed, they would be allowed to purchase a certain amount of purple gold every year.
This memorial was first presented from the Ministry of Works. The Minister of Works, Meng Jue, was a scholar from a poor family. In the memorial, he said that this was a plan to kill three birds with one stone. Not only did it solve the refugee riots in various places, it also showed that the court would not treat those who had done meritorious deeds unfairly. The money earned from selling the purple gold to these merchants at a high price could also be used for military supplies and war preparations.
This stone stirred up a thousand ripples. This time, someone from the Zhai Ying aristocratic family, who had a keen sense of smell, finally came back to their senses.
Gu Yun, who had not attended court for a long time, was fortunate enough to sit in and listen to the grand scene of swords drawn and bows bent. He was dumbstruck and felt that this place was more dangerous than the frontline positions of open spears and hidden arrows.
With a single memorial from the thirteen merchants, the accumulated contradictions between the landowning and poor families suddenly intensified. At this time, those with brains had already discovered that those officials and merchants were colluding and trading under the table. Those with keen sense of smell had already sensed that this new power would be difficult to resist in the future and would shake the foundations of the landowning class. A sense of crisis, like the sun setting in the west, quietly arose.
In the court, the pro-merchant faction accused the aristocratic families of "forming cliques for personal gain, bringing disaster to the country and suffering to the people" and of "standing and talking is easy". There were even some who flew into a rage and pointed at the noses of the other party and scolded, "You have an idea? How about letting the refugees settle down in your noble residences?"
Several aristocratic families argued with red faces and thick necks, "How can merchants be allowed to enter the hall of elegance?" and "How can the treasures of the purple gold fall into private hands?" In the end, they simply said, "I don't know how many bribes the several daren have received to wear the same pants as these peddlers."
Then, a row of generals looked at each other in dismay under the Marquis of Stability's silence. They stood on the wall and watched. In the end, the Grand Council ran out to smooth things over.
Gu Yun raised her head and glanced at the Emperor Long An. She only felt that Li Feng was really old. He was only in his thirties, but his hair was already gray and his head was badly battered. For a moment, Gu Yun suddenly thought, "If he was nailed to death by a stray arrow on a red-headed kite when the city was about to fall, would it be a good thing for him?"
Li Feng seemed to have sensed something and just happened to raise his head and meet Gu Yun's line of sight.
After the court was adjourned, Gu Yun was left in the palace. The two had a falling out before the war. After that, they were constantly fighting everywhere. There was almost no chance for them to interact in private. This time, they were once again chatting in the place where they grew up together. It was almost as if a lifetime had passed. Li Feng had left Gu Yun behind on impulse. When they really walked together in the imperial garden, he realized that he had nothing to say. It was really awkward.
At this moment, the Crown Prince passed by after school and came over to greet him.
Li Feng was not obsessed with the harem and did not have many children. The Crown Prince had just turned eight years old and had not started to grow. He was childish. When he saw Li Feng, he was a little reserved. He went forward to greet him properly and said, "Imperial Father."
Then, he cautiously glanced at Gu Yun. He wanted to talk but did not know who this person was.
Gu Yun smiled at him, "This official Gu Yun pays respect to Your Highness the Crown Prince."
The Crown Prince was shocked. Little boys loved to listen to stories of great heroes. When he saw the real person, he was excited. On the other hand, he had to forcefully maintain the Crown Prince's dignity in front of his father. His little face turned red and he stammered, "General, General Gu! No … that … Imperial Granduncle, you don't have to be so polite. I … I have learned Imperial Granduncle's calligraphy. "
Gu Yun's expression was a little strange, "… Your Highness is too polite."
The words "Imperial Granduncle" gave him a blow to the heart. It made him feel like he had grown a two-foot long beard.
That day, Li Feng dismissed everyone and only left the Crown Prince to accompany him. No one knew what he and Gu Yun talked about. The palace servants only knew that the little Crown Prince seemed to hit it off with the Marquis of Stability. He kept pestering him and refused to leave. In the end, he fell asleep on Gu Yun's shoulder. It was the Marquis of Stability who personally sent him back to the Eastern Palace.
Before leaving, the Emperor Long An specially instructed Gu Yun that if he had the time, he should often enter the palace to take a look and give pointers to the Crown Prince.
Previously, when the Emperor and the Marquis of Stability fell out, the matter of the separation between the military and the government seemed to be a ripple that was deliberately forgotten.
At this time, Jiang Chong hurriedly rushed into the private room of Wang Nan Lou. He took out a secret letter from his sleeve and handed it to Changgeng, "Wangye, take a look at this. Our foundation in the imperial court is not stable yet. This time, we might have acted a little too hastily."
It was a rubbing of a memorial. Jiang Chong lowered his voice and said, "It was leaked from the imperial palace. After the imperial court ended, several major aristocratic families jointly passed the memorial to the Emperor through Imperial Uncle. I'm afraid that this has been premeditated for a long time."
Changgeng's expression didn't change as he took it, "Imperial Uncle? Did he clean up his own mess? During this period of chaos, General Tan died in the capital. Does he think that no one will pursue him? "
Jiang Chong lowered his voice even more, "Wangye, Imperial Uncle is from the Empress Dowager's maternal family. As long as he doesn't rebel, the Emperor won't touch him … Moreover, who would dare to mention the matter of that year? If this reason was used to overthrow Imperial Uncle, wouldn't the previous Emperor have the reputation of being an incapable ruler who was blinded by a vile witch and harmed loyal people? The son doesn't talk about the father's mistakes. It's impossible for the Emperor to punish Imperial Uncle because of this matter. "
Changgeng's face was expressionless as he skimmed through the rubbing. Suddenly, he made a sound of surprise.
Jiang Chong, "What's wrong?"
Changgeng, "This doesn't seem to be something that Imperial Uncle, that good-for-nothing, could come up with. Whose work is it?"
Jiang Chong, "Oh, speaking of which, this person has a deep relationship with Wangye. Didn't the Fang Family want to form a marriage alliance with Wangye? The person behind this is Miss Fang's uncle, the current Minister of Revenue, Fang Qin. He was originally the Zhuangyuan Scholar appointed by the previous Emperor in the eighteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty. He was the only one in the previous dynasty who won three Zhuangyuan in a row. He has been known for his talent since childhood. "
Ever since Fang Qin took over the Ministry of Revenue, he handled everything in an orderly manner. He cooperated well with the Grand Council and never dragged them down. It could be said that he was a capable minister. Unfortunately, one's position determined one's head. He was born in the Fang Family and represented the Fang Family. He was destined to be an outstanding stumbling block.
"Half of the dynasty's Minister of Revenue, unparalleled in the limelight." Changgeng gently knocked on the table, "The former Yan of the Wang Xie Tang should also fly to the common people's homes."
Jiang Chong heard the murderous intent in his words and his heart jumped.
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