Strange Tale of Qingluan

He entered Dingxuehou's mansion, put the letter on the table, Dingxuehou looked down at it, and then looked at him on the other side of the table.Su Zhongming opened his mouth and ordered Ding Xuehou to open the letter and have a look, Ding Xuehou did as he did, read the letter again, frowned and said, "This matter...is really difficult."

"I was afraid that sending reinforcements would be detrimental to the Wen Kingdom, so I dare not agree rashly. You see, there will be a court meeting tomorrow, and let the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty come to discuss and discuss whether to send reinforcements or not."

Ding Xuehou put away the letter and returned it to Su Zhongming, "That's okay, it's faster to find a solution by gathering the ideas of the crowd than by thinking alone."

Su Zhongming grinned, then calmed down, and asked him, "Tell me, why did Tao Xia and Ge Yun suddenly join forces to attack a Jialing? No... just to seize its land, right? Ding Xuehou replied, "It is certain to seize land. Since ancient times, the purpose of attacking other countries is either for land or for food."

"Well! Compared with Wenguo, Jialing's people are a little poorer, but the land is not too small. In Taoxia's words, it must be right to send troops to attack it to seize its land, but why did Geyunguo want to fight with Taoxia? Xia united to send troops?"

Dingxuehou thought for a while, and replied: "You forgot about marrying the princess." Hearing this, Su Zhongming seemed to be enlightened, he patted the desk table, and suddenly realized, "By the way! Besides Taoxia's fight for Jialing's Land, wants to take this opportunity to avenge Wen Guo for what happened to Yunji! As for Ge Yun... I guess, it must also be related to those masked people."

... The regent of Ge Yunguo is Huang Yan, and Huang Yan is the head of Mufeng Club. We drove his subordinates who were sent to hide in the palace of Wenguo back to their lair. He must be dissatisfied and wanted to take advantage of this. Opportunity destroys the prestige of Wen country.

Su Zhongming secretly thought this way, he has not officially assumed office as the city lord of Qingluan City now, and he cannot call on the people of Qingluan City to contribute, so he can only rely on the court officials.

Dingxuehou didn't know the identities of those secret agents who were wearing masks to hide their true faces, so he couldn't make a guess about it, so he could only keep silent.

At this time, Princess Shengshi came into the room with tea, put the tray lightly on the table, picked up two cups, put one in front of Ding Xuehou and one in front of Su Zhongming, the two cups There is a small piece of ice in it.She lifted the pot and poured tea into the two cups respectively.

Su Zhongming was the first to pick up the cup without any scruples, put the edge of the cup to his lips, and drank it, but frowned, he immediately pointed to the water in the cup, and said to Princess Shengshi, "Auntie, what's wrong with this water?" Is it sour?"

Princess Sheng Shichang smiled, "I made the tea from sour plums, of course it will be sour. It's sour and cool, cool and sour. After drinking it, I feel comfortable."

...It turned out to be sour plum tea, no wonder it has a sour taste, it is cool and sour, it is a way to relieve the heat!Su Zhongming thought to himself, and happily drank the tea in the cup, and only put it on the table when he drank nearly half of it.

Princess Shengshi cast her eyes on the crumpled letter on the desk, and said with a smile, "What is this?"Hearing this, Su Zhongming was one step ahead of her, covered the letter with his hand, stopped her and said: "Auntie, this is a matter for the imperial court, don't you care about it?"

Princess Shengshi knew that she shouldn't and couldn't care about it, she immediately took her hand back, and only said softly to Ding Xuehou, "I see that your clothes are old, I will ask a tailor to make some for you later. A new one, you have to wait for me obediently, you can't run away..."

Ding Xuehou's reaction was a little puzzled, "I'm in the mansion, where else can I go?" Princess Sheng Shichang still said softly to him: "Then I'll go down and embroider the purse for you now, be obedient !” After speaking, he turned and left immediately.

Su Zhongming had been listening from the sidelines, seeing the loving couple in front of him, he couldn't help feeling a little sour, but he thought that the sour plum tea would show a reaction after drinking too much, so he stopped drinking it.Staring at Ding Xuehou's calm brow on the opposite side for a moment, he said, "When did you..." Chen Yin changed his words, "It seems that you have changed your mind?"

Ding Xuehou couldn't understand what he meant, he just opened his eyes in confusion, and didn't bother to open his mouth. In his heart, he thought it was a trivial matter, so he didn't need to pursue it.But in Su Zhongming's heart, he just thought he was acquiescing, and smiled, "That's great!" The next quarter of an hour, he became sad again, "Oh... I'm miserable, as long as I don't get along with that naughty man for a day The girl’s surname is Fang, the queen mother will call me to her bedroom, and then scold me endlessly.”

He continued: "It's easy to be named Fang, just turn off the lights and put on a quilt, but I'm afraid she will kick me! You don't know, the last time I was riding a horse in the palace, she stopped me Lu, kick me off the horse! If I rashly call her Fang, then Gen Zi will lose his life."

Ding Xuehou was silent for a moment, and couldn't help asking, "Are you willing to accept her?" Su Zhongming replied, "I think that since she has become a queen, the queen mother will definitely not agree to my divorce request, so I have to take advantage of her, and we can do it later." Marry whoever you like."

Ding Xuehou looked down at the sour plum tea in his cup, and remained silent for the second time, no one knew what Chen Yin was doing.Su Zhongming, who was on the opposite side, waited for a while. Seeing that there was no answer, he suddenly felt bored and panicked. He opened his mouth and was about to say something, but unfortunately, Princess Shengshi came back at this time.

She stepped into the room generously, opened her red lips, and said softly to Ding Xuehou, "The tailor is here, hurry up and follow me." Ding Xuehou had no choice but to get up and follow her.Princess Sheng Shichang apologized to Su Zhongming with a smile, "Your Majesty, I am really sorry, I have to send Your Majesty back to the palace respectfully."

Su Zhongming put the letter on the case into his sleeve, stood up, and replied: "It's okay, I'll just go back." He left immediately, and just a few steps out of the house, he turned his head again and told Ding Xuehou, "There will be a court meeting tomorrow. late."

On the second day, Ding Xuehou arrived at the palace on time, and walked into the Jinglun Pavilion with his colleagues who came at the same time, and sat at the table. Looking at the content of the court meeting, a trace of boredom appeared on his face.

Not long after, Grand Tutor He Wukui also came, and sat beside him as soon as he sat down, and greeted him with a smile, "Yo, Li Hou came quite early! Your Majesty hasn't arrived yet, so you should go ahead Come, I thought you would bring His Majesty here because you have a special order to freely enter and leave the harem."

Ding Xuehou didn't want to pay attention to him, and calmly turned his face away, but a sentence leaked out of his mouth, "Your Majesty and I are innocent, you don't want to talk nonsense all day long."

He Wukui didn't change his face, and replied with a smile: "I didn't say anything, did you hear what I said? It's just that everyone in the government and the public knows that you, Li Hou, have some friendship with His Majesty. You are His Majesty's favorite minister. It's not that I think you are His Majesty's former son."

After hearing this, Ding Xuehou's face became gloomy, and he felt in his heart: Luan Tong's reputation is a bit ugly, but as long as he is willing to accept him as Luan Tong, it doesn't matter how bad it is, even if things get so troublesome that Hui Rou wants to force him to die. It doesn't matter, but it's a pity... He seems to love women and not men, so he can only imagine.

After a while, only a shout was heard, and Su Zhongming came gracefully like the wind.Ding Xuehou was refreshed, he raised his head and looked over, seeing his attire, he felt refreshed.

Su Zhongming sat on the throne of the emperor, and opened his mouth to talk about business, "Yesterday, an envoy from Jialing Kingdom came, and kept saying that he wanted Wen Kingdom to send troops to help, saying that Taoxia and Ge Yun would join forces to enter their country, and it would be difficult for them alone. Make up your mind, today I invite all the ministers to come and discuss together."

The house was silent for a while, and suddenly a minister said, "It is true that there are many poor people in Jialing, but the royal family is not like this. It is obvious that the soldiers and horses are not good enough, and the armor is not good enough. However, in the opinion of my humble minister, it is better not to rush Help."

Someone interjected, "Master Gu's words are very true, and Jialing has never had an alliance with our country, how can our country rashly send troops to help them repel the strong troops of the northern two countries?"

Some people objected, "My lords, this is really unreasonable. Jialing has never had an alliance with our country, but it will be beneficial if we send troops this time to help and repel the strong troops of the two northern countries: First, our country There will be a chance to become an ally with it, and secondly, Taoxia and Geyun will not dare to underestimate our country because of this defeat."

He Wukui made a guess, "Your Majesty, don't forget that the Princess Heqin came from Taoxia. King Taoxia must have been furious because of this incident, so he sent troops south to kill two birds with one stone. As for why he joined hands with Ge Yunguo, it must be because What covenant is there between them?"

Su Zhongming felt that his words made sense, nodded, and said: "It's just that the attack on Jialing's city has nothing to do with our country, but I'm afraid that after they dominate Jialing, they will continue to attack our country's city in the south... "

"Then, what does His Majesty mean..."

"You eat more salt than Gu, you decide."

The group of ministers continued to discuss with each other, and after half an hour, they clearly formed two factions of pros and cons, and returned to the beginning.Su Zhongming frowned, feeling that if he went on like this, there would be no result, he knocked on the table, stopped everyone's discussion, and suggested: "What year and month will this be about? Why not draw lots."

The ministers were shocked when they heard the words, "Drawing lots? Your Majesty, this matter is so important, how can it be settled by drawing lots?!" Su Zhongming showed a tired expression, "The reasons for sending troops to aid and the reasons for not sending troops to aid are all reasonable. I’ve been listening to it for a long time, so I can’t listen to it for a month or a year, right? Drawing lots is the fastest and saves the brain.”

After he finished speaking, he ordered people to bring paper, pen and ink and a bowl, twisted the written paper into small balls and put them in the bowl, and let the bold people smoke, but all the officials dared not do it, so he had no choice but to do it himself. .Putting his fingertips into the paper balls, he picked up one at random, he opened it, took a look at the first one, and handed it to the eunuch, the eunuch said loudly: "Send troops to help!"

"Send troops to help, which of the ministers is willing to lead the troops there?" Su Zhongming glanced at the ministers, but no one responded, he was helpless, and raised his pen, "Then continue to draw lots."

He handed the pen to the eunuch and ordered him to write down the names of the generals who would fight in the court one by one, and put them in the bowl.The eunuch complied, and after a while, the bowl was filled with paper balls.According to the previous practice, he personally pinched out a total of four as deputy commanders, and finally pinched the fifth as the head coach.

He held the fifth one in his hand and asked the eunuch to read the first four first, and the eunuch read: "Take Xu Taiyi, Wan Yuan, Yang Minghe and Nie Yao as the deputy commanders of the reinforcements." The paper ball that had been glanced at was handed over to the eunuch, and the eunuch continued to read, "Take Ding Xuehou Li Xuan as the coach of the reinforcements."

Su Zhongming opened his lips, "The five Qing families will lead [-] elite soldiers, and tomorrow they will follow the envoys to help." He stood up, "Then...let's end the meeting!" As soon as he finished speaking, he was the first to step out of Jinglun Pavilion.

He Wukui smiled, put his hand on Dingxuehou's shoulder, and congratulated him, "Li Hou, Lord Hou! Congratulations! Lead troops to fight, and remember to bring the best things from Jialing Kingdom when you come back." Ah! I heard that people in Jialing like to bury wine in the ground for decades, you must remember to bring it back!"

Dingxuehou snorted in front of his face, ruthlessly slapped his guard away, followed all the ministers, and walked out of the Jinglun Pavilion.He was walking slowly in the open space alone, when suddenly someone called him from the high platform, "Hello——"