Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

The Wuling Prince's Mansion in Yizhou has now been upgraded to the Liang Emperor's Palace Garden. In April, King Wuling ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, and it has been a few months since then. The people of Yizhou have become accustomed to it from the initial uncertainty.

After the title, King Wuling overhauled armors and trained troops in the name of coming out of the east to quell thieves. As for other etiquette systems, for the time being, he could only make do with simplicity without making many changes.

The main hall of the former Prince Wuling's Mansion is now used as the hall where Tianzheng Emperor Xiao Ji and his subordinates discuss important military and political matters. Whenever important decisions need to be made, all the subordinates are summoned here to make announcements.

Under normal circumstances, Xiao Ji mainly lived in the military camp in the south of the city. As for the military and political affairs in the city, Xiao Yuanzheng, the second son who was granted the title of King of Xiyang, and Xiao Ju, who was granted the title of King of Qin County, were in charge of the military and political affairs in the city. Only when they encounter something major that cannot be decided, they will notify Xiao Ji in the military camp outside the city.

A big thing happened today, that is, the Western Wei Dynasty, which had sent troops to collude with internal thieves to invade Shu, actually sent envoys here again.

The envoys of the Western Wei Dynasty were temporarily placed in the Jiange Pavilion and were not allowed to enter. Xiao Yuanzheng, the king of Xiyang, hurriedly informed the emperor Xiao Ji of the news in the military camp south of the city. After hearing the news, Xiao Ji did not dare to neglect, and hurriedly led a group of imperial guards back to the palace in the city.

"What does the State of Wei intend to do by sending envoys at this time?"

Xiao Ji is in his forties. Although he is not extremely tall, he is calm and powerful. At first glance, he is more majestic than the disabled King of Xiangdong, and he looks like a king. After returning to the palace, he looked at his son Xiao Yuanzheng who was welcoming Xi Xing and asked in a deep voice.

"The guard of Jiange hurriedly sent people to complain without any detailed examination. After I got the letter, I didn't dare to make arbitrary decisions and immediately sent people to report to the officials."

After hearing this, Xiao Yuanzheng hurriedly bowed and said, and then took out an unopened letter from his arms and presented it with both hands: "The Wei envoy has another letter. Because the official has not returned to the garden, the son has kept it secretly in his arms. Inside, I didn’t dare to show it to anyone.”

Xiao Ji nodded with satisfaction after hearing this. He was quite satisfied with his son's meticulousness. He took the letter with one hand, patted his son on the shoulder with the other and said with a smile: "In life, a small setback is not a bad thing. If it weren't for losing to Wei In the hands of others, you don't know that there are still heroes in the world who are difficult to defeat. Now it is a blessing in disguise, and you have returned to Shu through the hands of the Wei people. If you are still under the entrustment of Jiangling, the seven officials will definitely not let you go back. Your father is afraid. It’s going to hurt my arm!”

After hearing the words, Xiao Yuanzheng nodded in agreement, and then said with regret: "It's just a pity that the tens of thousands of soldiers gathered in Yingzhou, if they still stay in that area, they can attack with Master Wang from east to west. Jiangling, the world can be settled in a moment!"

Xiao Ji did not feel sorry for this, and instead said with a smile: "It is commendable to have great ambitions, but sometimes you have to act within your capabilities. Your father is still brave and resourceful, and there is no need for his children to sacrifice their lives to help. What's more, you Although my brother was defeated by Baling before the envoy came to report the rebellion, he quickly regrouped and made a comeback.

There are only seven officials and one rotten Confucian scholar, so how can they suppress the evil and stubborn thieves? I just hope that he will not lose his integrity and dare to die when Jiangling City is destroyed. This will not be in vain for me to go east to defeat the thieves and avenge him! "

The territory of Shu was already closed off, especially after its previous attempts to leave eastward failed, and Jiangling instead guarded the mouth of the gorge and blocked its way out eastward, the reception of external news became even more closed off.

Last year, it was even because the Jingzhou Governor's Office sent an envoy to escort Xiao Yuanzheng to negotiate that Sichuan learned that Hou Jing's army was marching westward. After a hard battle, Jiangling's soldiers were able to save Jiangling.

Since then, all the information received by Shuzhong was provided by Xiao Yuanzhao, the eldest son of Xiao Ji and the crown prince who is now in Badong.

Therefore, in Xiao Ji's understanding, Hou Jing's rebellious army is still extremely rampant and more powerful than before. Jiangling has lost troops and retreated steadily. The situation is already precarious. It is urgent for them, the King of Sichuan, to go east to quell the chaos and clean up the world!

Xiao Ji originally didn't think much of Xiao Yi, the seventh child who only knew how to write and cater to the former prince Xiao Gang without any bottom line. Because of the delay in news, he still didn't know that the position of honor in Jiankang had been changed several times. I thought Xiao Gang, the third puppet emperor, was still in power. Judging from his brazen act of proclaiming the emperor, let alone Lao Qi, his brothers are probably trash in his eyes, and they are not an obstacle to him at all in his pursuit of the throne!

As he said that, Xiao Ji went to the palace and sat down with the letter. When he saw the seal of the Western Wei Dynasty's Foreign Affairs Office on the outside of the letter, his face couldn't help but become a little serious. He just felt that the Western Wei Dynasty sent envoys at this time. Shu, no matter what the purpose is, I'm afraid it's not a good thing.

The fact was just as Xiao Ji expected. The wording in this letter was very rude. It still used the previous war between the two parties as an excuse, accusing Shuzhong of not abiding by the previous armistice agreement between the two parties and privately detaining captured soldiers of the Western Wei Dynasty as official slaves. Wu, and also sent troops to harass Di Qiang Yang Fachen who had defected to the Western Wei Dynasty. Therefore, the Western Wei Dynasty wanted to send envoys to visit the country and investigate whether this was really the case.

When Xiao Ji saw this, he was so angry that he laughed instead. He knew what the Western Wei's plan was. It was just to see him proclaim himself emperor. He felt that he was eager to go east to quell the chaos and regain the lost territory, so he made unreasonable troubles and set up obstacles for him to restrict his actions.

"The thieves who came to attack me were dishonest in the first place! Now they are making things difficult with this, the Qiang slaves really have no shame. Even though the country is in danger, how can I accept this coercion and expel the Wei envoy..."

Xiao Ji had been in Shu for more than ten years, and he had the most merit among his brothers. Naturally, he was not a man who would seek perfection. When he saw this unreasonable letter from the Western Wei Dynasty, he no longer wanted to get entangled with it. If the thief wants to fight, then he will fight. It just so happens that recently he is also thinking about whether to regain Hanzhong first and then go east to quell the chaos!

However, just when he was about to crush the letter and throw it out, his eyes accidentally caught sight of some words running sideways at the end of the letter. His expression and words were stagnant for a moment. He recovered after a moment, frowned and started reading carefully, and soon his face changed drastically. , shouted loudly: "Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Xiao Yuanzheng was greatly surprised when he saw his father acting so rude. He hurriedly went to carry out the crime and whispered: "The official..."

Xiao Ji turned a deaf ear to his son's cry. Instead, he picked up the slightly wrinkled letter and read it carefully again. After a long time, he closed his eyes and meditated, and then asked in a deep voice: "You were in Shi Qi?" Under the government, do you think the troops have the momentum to quell the rebels?"

"How is this possible?"

After Xiao Yuanzheng heard this, he immediately laughed subconsciously and said that when he was defeated and captured by the Western Wei people in front of Runan City, it happened to be when Hou Jing's rebellious army succeeded in raiding Yingzhou City and the Jiangling armies were rushing to flee, so he felt guilty. The impression that the rebels were massive and powerful had already been left in my mind. Although we later received news that the rebels had suffered a defeat outside Baling City, in the end, what we heard was false and could not offset the influence of what we saw was true.

"But the Wei people said that the Jiangnan rebellion had been put down long ago, Wang Sengbian and others had recovered Jiankang, and the bandit leader Hou Jing had also been beheaded..."

Xiao Ji threw out the letter in his hand, his tone full of surprise and uncertainty.

After Xiao Yuanzheng saw this, he quickly picked up the letter and read it carefully. After reading it, his face was also shocked, and he whispered in a low voice: "This, this is really unbelievable! Jiangling had been defeated in succession before. How could it be... could the Wei people be cheating? "

"It's not impossible! The Qiang thieves always have no bottom line in their actions and are only interested in profit. They know that my voice is blocked, so they make false threats!"

Xiao Ji also said in a fierce voice, but immediately frowned, and after pondering for a while, he said: "But everything will be clear if you listen carefully, especially for such a big matter, there is no room for negligence! With my warrant, you can go to Badong first and ask If your brother doesn’t know what is going on to the east, he will immediately send people to investigate!”

"My son takes orders!"

After hearing this, Xiao Yuanzheng hurriedly responded respectfully, but after thinking for a moment, he hurriedly bowed and said, "But if His Highness the Crown Prince refuses to respond to the question, what should I do?"

"If he doesn't want to... why doesn't he? What plan do you have! Now the father and son are conspiring together and will die if they don't succeed. The foreign affairs have not yet been settled, and they have used the conspiracy on their siblings!"

Xiao Ji didn't understand what his son meant at first, but after turning the corner, his expression suddenly changed, and he immediately slapped the case and angrily scolded the second son for his complicated thoughts.

"I don't dare, I don't dare... It's just that this matter is too important, so, that's why I made a mistake in order to be thorough! Please forgive me, father, father... I have been wandering away for a long time, missing my family. Ruji, now finally..."

Seeing his father being so angry, Xiao Yuanzheng hurriedly bowed to the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.

His elder brother Xiao Yuanzhao stayed with his father because of Emperor Gaozuwu's preference, so the relationship between father and son was deep. However, his second son stayed in Jiankang as a hostage, and later moved to various officials, and he and his father were also together as young children. If there is too much separation, the relationship will inevitably become a little weak.

That's all if it goes on like this, but suddenly there is an extra throne in the family that needs to be inherited. Even if Xiao Yuanzheng has no intention of seizing the throne, he still wants to use his father's majesty to give his brother a little beating and let the prince show up in front of him. Be kind to yourself. But he didn't expect that just such an outrageous thought would be met with such a violent reaction from his father that he could only kowtow and beg for mercy.

Hearing Xiao Yuanzheng's cry of misery, the anger on Xiao Ji's face subsided slightly, but his mood was confused by the message conveyed in Wei Ren's letter. He waved his hand and said, "Since it was an unintentional mistake, let's let this matter go for now. If you commit any crime again in the future, you will be severely punished! Please retreat, I will send someone else to Badong!"

After hearing the words, Xiao Yuanzheng nodded quickly in agreement, not daring to say anything more. Just as he was about to bend down to leave, he heard Xiao Ji in the hall order: "The envoys of the State of Wei, please quickly send your cronies from the palace and the inner garden to welcome you." , No contact with outsiders! If you leak the secret, you will be severely punished!"