Chapter 12 How can a person be so unlucky?

"avalanche?"

Xiao Xun rose and paced around the hall. "Huaiyang Kingdom is located in the Central Plains. The mountains there shouldn't be very high. How many casualties have they suffered?"

"Your Majesty, the avalanche occurred on Cuiwei Mountain in the suburbs of Huaiyang City. There are two villages at the foot of the mountain, and almost all the houses were buried in the snow. A total of more than 3,000 people were affected."

A messenger arrived at breakneck speed, carrying a document from Cui Heng, the prime minister of Huaiyang Kingdom.

"I remember there are county and state schools on Mount Cuiwei." Xiao Xun glanced at the documents and asked, "How many people are in the schools?"

"Your Majesty, the mountains are now blocked by heavy snow. When the report came, we did not know if there were any casualties in the school. However, fortunately, the New Year is approaching and there are no students in the school. Only a few teachers and the people who usually sweep and cook in the school are still living on the mountain. Although we do not have a clear number now, it should be less than ten people."

Prime Minister Su had already arrived outside the palace.

After the messenger left, Xiao Xun showed Su Dan the urgent report: "Although the disaster is not serious, most of the damage is to houses, and few people have died from being crushed by snow. However, with the New Year approaching, if we do not make proper arrangements, I am afraid that the people's hearts will easily become unruly."

It's not just because the end of the year is approaching.

What Xiao Xun didn't say was that the Qu family's power in the court had just collapsed, and from the Three Auxiliary Regions down to the prefectures and counties, the appointment and removal of officials were all affected.

After Qu Yang was imprisoned, people frequently submitted memorials to plead his innocence. This shows how deep his influence was.

If someone were to exploit the natural disaster to make a big fuss, using it as a warning from heaven to accuse Qu Yang of being loyal and upright, then Qu Yang's crimes would likely become a muddled mess.

If Qu Yang is not executed, it would not be a good thing for a young monarch who has just regained power.

He hated him to the core.

What about Kuanren's reputation?

For fourteen years, he lived in Qu Yang's shadow.

Fourteen years have passed since the sun rose and set, but the sky he saw was always gray and black, like the gloomy, snowy sky at the end of the third year of the Tian Shou era.

Su Dan nodded: "Your Majesty's concerns are very valid. Huaiyang Kingdom is the fiefdom of the King of Huaiyang, but the King of Huaiyang has long neglected state affairs and indulged in sensual pleasures. The officials he has appointed and dismissed are also corrupt and degenerate. Now that there is a snow disaster, I'm afraid the country is already in chaos. That's why Prime Minister Cui is in a hurry to submit a memorial to the court."

"Therefore, you also feel it is inappropriate for the Huaiyang Kingdom to raise funds for disaster relief on its own?"

Su Dan agreed, saying, "I believe that the court should send a Grand Master of Ceremonies and a Doctor to oversee the relief efforts, open the granaries, and resettle the disaster victims."

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Besides, I also have some concerns. Huaiyang Kingdom is located in the Central Plains, with abundant water and soil, and a prosperous population. It has nine counties and a population of over one million. Every year, the taxes from its mountains, seas, ponds, and lakes alone exceed ten million. One-fifth of these taxes go to the court, but the remainder is mostly used for the extravagance and debauchery of the King of Huaiyang and his son."

Xiao Xun understood Su Dan's meaning and chuckled lightly: "Does the Prime Minister mean that Huaiyang should be governed as a prefecture rather than a state?"

Su Dan stood solemnly and bowed deeply: "Your Majesty is wise."

At the beginning of this dynasty, Emperor Taizu sacrificed a white horse to swear an oath to eliminate kings of different surnames, enfeoffing only his own sons and nephews. However, rebellions by the vassal kings were still frequent.

When the late emperor came to power, he extended his favor to the feudal lords. Except for the eldest son of the Xiao family who inherited the title of marquis, all other descendants of the Xiao family were granted land and made marquises.

The vassal states grew smaller and smaller, their strength greatly diminished, and many left their states due to the lack of heirs.

For example, at the end of the year in which his father died, the son of the King of Guangling contracted a plague and died, and the kingdom of Guangling was abolished.

Among the vassal states today, the most powerful is the State of Yan. King Xiao Yue of Yan inherited the state at the age of six and is now only twenty years old.

Secondly, there is the Kingdom of Yuzhang. The King of Yuzhang is the younger brother of the late emperor, born of the same mother. He is over seventy years old and has countless descendants.

In addition, there is the Kingdom of Huaiyang, whose King Huaiyang is young and vigorous, and has only one son, Xiao Jin.

Xiao Xun didn't interact much with his second brother, the Prince of Huaiyang, but he spent a lot of time with Xiao Jin, though he didn't have a very good impression of him.

Especially since one of their playmates was Xiao Yu, who excelled in everything.

Xiao Jin was not fond of classics and history, and Su Dan never liked him when he was studying in Chengming Hall.

However, he was different from Qu Qingchuan.

Qu Yang was quite strict with Qu Qingchuan. Although his harsh treatment of Qu Qingchuan, which often involved beatings and scoldings, ultimately had the opposite effect, but that's another story.

The Prince of Huaiyang doted on this son to the extreme, and his queen was no less so.

Xiao Jin is remarkably similar to the Prince of Huaiyang—at least to the Prince of Huaiyang that Xiao Xun knew after he became aware of the situation.

After the Crown Prince's rebellion, the Prince of Huaiyang, with his seniority, was considered by many to be the rightful heir to the throne. However, he indulged in a life of drunken revelry, spouting drunken tales and declaring that he only wished to be an "emperor" surrounded by women.

Later, defying public opinion and going against all odds, he made a songstress he had taken in his backyard his principal wife.

Xiao Jin disliked reading but was skilled in music; he was not good at riding and archery but was good at pitch-pot games.

Although he never married, he grew up among the singers and dancers of the Huaiyang Prince's Mansion and the Music Bureau in the capital, and gained a reputation for being "fond of women" at a young age.

When Qu Qingchuan secretly took out the fire-avoidance diagram in Chengming Hall, he only glanced at it and smiled, thinking that the fight between petty people was nothing more than child's play.

At Qu Yang's request, Xiao Jin, at the age of fifteen, went to Huaiyang to assume his fiefdom as the heir apparent, which relieved Xiao Xun.

Otherwise, in the Chengming Hall, he would sometimes tug at Su Chan's disheveled hair, and sometimes draw a portrait of Su Chan on a silk cloth hidden under a book. Although it looked like a pheasant with its feathers ruffled, being chased and beaten by Su Chan.

Su Chan jumped up from the desk, bumping into the pen on the inkstone.

Ink splattered onto the scrolls spread out on Xiao Xun's desk and also flew onto the jade crown on his head.

Looking at the ink stains and the messy white silk, Su Chan stuck out her tongue and said, "A-Xun, next time you paint a picture for your good nephew to see what a real painting is!"

As Xiao Xun gradually came to understand human nature, he felt quite uncomfortable seeing Xiao Jin's playful and joking manner towards Su Chan.

Even Xiao Jin's address of Su Chan as "cousin aunt" sounded particularly cloying to Xiao Xun.

However, despite their dissolute lifestyle and licentious behavior, the father and son did not do anything particularly outrageous.

Huaiyang Kingdom is blessed with natural advantages and rarely suffers from natural disasters.

The last time I received an urgent report from Huaiyang was in the first year of the Jinghe era, when mountain bandits were rampant.

The Prince of Huaiyang was particularly concerned about this matter, probably because he wanted to appeal to the imperial court or please Qu Yang.

Because the places where the bandits went were precisely the county and state schools that Qu Yang was vigorously promoting.

Upon receiving the urgent report, Qu Yang immediately nodded, and Huaiyang Kingdom opened its armory and launched a military campaign, soon wiping out the mountain bandits.

Yes, although the Prince of Huaiyang was incompetent and remained detached from the court, his stance was quite delicate.

When Xiao Xun was fifteen years old, Su Dan, together with Wang Hou from the Xiao clan, submitted a memorial to the throne, trying to force Qu Yang to hand over the power of regent and prompt Xiao Xun to come of age and assume personal rule.

He remembered clearly that the petition did not contain the names of Prince Huaiyang, Xiao Cheng, or his heir, Xiao Jin.

Two months ago, Qu Qingchuan rebelled in Shangjun under the banner of "exonerating the wrongful conviction of the deposed crown prince and supporting the crown prince's orphan." Rumors circulated that Grand Marshal Qu Yang had been forced into rebellion by his only son.

All military orders from the imperial court came from the Grand Marshal, and the army sent to Shangjun was actually reinforcements for the rebels.

The emperor had long been under house arrest, and the court would soon welcome a new emperor.

The rumors spread like wildfire, and it was impossible for the Prince of Huaiyang not to hear them. Yet, just as he had been during the Tian Shou case in the third year, he remained unmoved.

It is unclear whether he was choosing to remain uninvolved and protect himself, or whether he was pleased to see the so-called "crown prince's orphan" be enthroned as the new emperor.

Xiao Xun walked up to the map of the territory hanging high on one side of the Xuan Shi Hall.

"Huaiyang Kingdom".

He drew his longsword, its cold light instantly spreading across the land of Huaiyang, the blade pointing directly at Cuiwei Mountain.

His gaze swept across the land of Yuzhou, and he was drawn to the names of neighboring places.

It is Yingchuan.

Yangdi County.

*

Lin Yu's white horse was very intelligent and stopped.

He Ji also reined in his horse in a panic.

An avalanche suddenly occurred on Cuiwei Mountain, but fortunately they had not reached the mountainside and were not injured.

He Ji's lips drooped: "This avalanche has blocked the road down the mountain, so we'll have to stay on the mountain on New Year's Day too."

"We don't know what the situation is down the mountain yet. But I've never seen you so eager to go down the mountain before," Lin Yu chuckled. "Aunt Li sent you down to do some shopping, and you came back complaining that your legs are sore."

Li Ao is the "old woman" that A Yao mentioned cooking in the dormitory yesterday.

He Ji said sullenly, "Isn't this because A Yuan finally made it to Huaiyang? She hasn't even seen how lively Huaiyang is yet."

Hearing the commotion, Lin Yuan's eyes lit up, and she said considerately, "It's alright, I'll be staying here for quite a while. Once this period is over and the snow melts, everything will be fine."

He Ji's lips turned to a smile, and he said happily, "When the snow melts, I'll take you to the Music Bureau to listen to music. On the night of the fifteenth, I'll take you to see the lanterns and various performances. The Music Bureau in Huaiyang Kingdom was built under the personal supervision of the King and Queen of Huaiyang, and the dances and music there are all top-notch."

Lin Yu glared at him and blurted out to Lin Yuan, "You're going to stay here for quite a while. Did you discuss it with me?"

Lin Yuan's eyes flickered: "If I stay here for too long, will my older and younger sisters be unable to take care of Master Lin anymore?"

Upon hearing this, He Ji burst into laughter without a care in the world.

Lin Yu glanced at him: "Alright, alright, don't shake the snow so it can cause another avalanche."

In the past two days, he has not asked Lin Yuan how she left the palace.

As for why she left her parents in Chang'an, Lin Yuan exhaled a breath of turbid air and said, "I just got back, and my mother is already arranging marriages for me. Brother, if I hadn't run faster, I'm afraid we would have already reached the 'betrothal' stage."

But when he was looking for the sesame cakes his mother made, he looked at Lin Yuan's package and didn't see any identification.

Furthermore, because he had previously inquired with the heir apparent of the Prince of Huaiyang about the fate of the palace women in the Jiaofang Palace after Empress Qu was deposed, and most of them were demoted to the remote Shanglin Villa along with the deposed empress, he began to speculate:

Lin Yuan likely escaped from Shanglin Garden.

Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief that she had escaped.

Initially, he, his father, and his mother were all unwilling for Lin Yuan to enter the palace.

However, the officials and soldiers who came to select good men from good families surrounded their homes.

When they shouted that they wanted to check the records of his entire family and threatened him with the land rent and poll tax from previous years, the father, who had been acting as a door god with a shovel in his left hand and a hoe in his right, suddenly fell silent.

Amidst the deafening knocking of the officials, the father finally handed over A-Yuan's identity document and A-Yuan herself.

Later, the father said to the mother, who was still weeping, "These officials and soldiers are like dog skin plasters; they may escape today, but they'll come back tomorrow."

His explanation was incoherent: "Pretending to be sick won't work either. Once I recover, I'll still have to go to the palace. It's only a matter of time."

He pondered for a moment, then added, "Ah Yin next door did indeed feign illness to avoid it, but Ah Yin's nose and eyes could be smoothed out by a gust of wind. Who would care? Ah Jin's face is longer than a horse's. The palace has countless imperial horses; what difference does one more make?"

"Our Ah Yuan is so beautiful, even the emperor wouldn't forget her, let alone those officials and soldiers!"

He finally comforted her, saying, "The palace isn't some den of tigers and wolves; it won't eat you! When you reach the right age, twenty-five, you can leave the palace. Once you're out of the palace, everything will be fine!"

This was the second time Lin Yu had seen her father in such a panicked state.

The first time was when I was eight years old.

His father led him to a thatched hut.

Lin Yu couldn't see the dilapidated state of the thatched shed back then.

Because his original home, the one that filled the southern suburbs of Chang'an, had long since been reduced to ruins.

His mother, the Crown Princess, always gentle and kind, wore armor, and the guards and servants of the Crown Prince's residence took up long spears and swords.

With blood still wet on her face, she turned around, sword in hand, and said only one thing to him: "Live on, Ayu."

He cried and shouted, but a guard covered his mouth and dragged him out: "Your Highness, come quickly, come with me."

The guard was tall and imposing, covered in blood and with a dirty face; Xiao Yu did not recognize him.

Xiao Yu, who is almost nine years old, spends his days drawing a bow and shooting arrows, and has already developed considerable strength.

He struggled incessantly, his crown fell off, and his clothes were torn to shreds.

The guard eventually hoisted him onto his shoulder.

He was on high up, watching his home turn into a sea of ​​blood and then into a sea of ​​fire.

The guards carried him for a long time before finally entrusting him to a blacksmith.

Xiao Yu didn't know why it was this blacksmith.

But he knew he was too heavy, and the guards could barely carry him.

Behind them were countless Imperial Guards, Changshui Xuanqu Hu soldiers, heading towards Siqi Garden in their direction.

He carried him on his back, running all the way, bleeding the entire way.

When Xiao Yu looked up, he saw a red sky; when he looked down, he saw a red ground.

The guard said that the blacksmith had made spears and halberds for the crown prince and was also involved in the rebellion; the imperial pursuers were heading this way. The blacksmith's wife was a cook in Siqi Garden. The imperial order was that everyone in Siqi Garden should be killed without exception.

As the blacksmith knelt on the ground, too terrified to breathe, the guard said he could die in the blacksmith's place and cover his wife and daughters' escape, disguising them as refugees to flee Chang'an. The crown prince had previously built temporary shelters for refugees outside the city. But the condition was that the blacksmith must raise the crown prince's orphan.

You must treat him as your own son.

"Let the last remaining bloodline of the Crown Prince live on."

While they were talking, Xiao Yu was outside the door, watching the flames fill the sky.

He heard the sound of kowtowing and pleading.

Crying, rage.

The sound of stomping and pounding on the wall.

Finally, the blacksmith came out with red eyes.

He stammered, awkwardly asking Xiao Yu, "Do you...do you like...my sister?"

When the fire spread from Siqi Garden to this small blacksmith shop, Xiao Yu's name was also buried in the ruins.

He was with his mother, two older sisters, and several thousand people from Siqi Garden and the Northern Palace.

Lin Yu was the one who survived.

Why is he called Lin Yu?

The blacksmith's eyes reflected the flickering firelight as he said, "Back then, when we didn't have enough to eat, we ate the elm seeds hanging from the elm trees and gnawed on the bark. Elm trees were good; they were resilient, they could live, and they could keep people alive."

He followed the blacksmith and went into hiding for more than two months.

Until the late emperor's mausoleum collapsed.

At the age of nine, he had a new father, a new mother, and a younger sister.

They said this was his home.

When A Yuan caught a cold in Huaiyang, she lay on the couch in a daze, almost unconscious, and he looked at her.

She has changed a lot since she entered the palace at the age of fifteen.

Undeniably, his A-Yuan, like a flower bud, has blossomed, bloomed, and become even more beautiful.

But his Ah Yuan always had a bright smile on her face.

When she was seven, she gave Lin Yu a bunch of wildflowers, but Lin Yu didn't take them; instead, they fell to the ground.

The next moment, it was trampled into a muddy mess by passersby.

She stuck out her tongue and said, "Brother, it's alright. I heard that the petals turned into mud, and next year, the flowers that grow in this place will be even more beautiful."

Lin Yu didn't know how to carry water. She fetched water from the Feng River, and with every step she took, half of the water in the bucket spilled out and splashed onto her face.

He felt apologetic, but didn't want to speak.

Lin Yuan blinked, her eyelashes glistening in the sunlight, as did her palms, and scooped up a handful of water, splashing it onto Lin Yu's face.

Looking through her moist eyes, her smile was dazzling, and her voice was even brighter: "Brother, do you like playing in the water? Let's splash around and play!"

Even though he was going to the palace, his mother cried all night, and his father was so depressed that he couldn't eat.

Lin Yuan used a silk handkerchief to wipe away her mother's tears: "Oh, who bullied your mother? When I enter the palace, if anyone bullies your mother again, I'll tell them that we have connections in the palace!"

She broke off a piece of flatbread and stuffed it into her father's mouth: "Father hasn't eaten enough, and he's lost eighty percent of his strength to sigh!"

She flipped through Lin Yu's Sima Qian's book and teased him, "Brother, now that I've entered the palace, perhaps the Sima Qian's book will include another Lin family from Yonghe Village, Dongping Township!"

Lin Yu remembers that the sunlight in the corner danced in her eyes, bright and sparkling.

It feels like just last night.

Even in her deep sleep, her eyes were glistening with tears.

Years have passed in the blink of an eye. She no longer wears silk clothes or eats malt sugar, but she has lost a lot of weight.

He was now wrapped around Lin Yuan, and Lin Yuan's elbows would occasionally brush against him, their tips sharp.

She suffered so much in the palace.

The rumbling sound came again from halfway up the mountain.

Interspersed with the clatter of horses' hooves and the cacophony of human voices.

"An avalanche, and people still come up the mountain? Are they crazy?" He Ji was dumbfounded, and Lin Yuan was also stunned when she heard this.

They watched as the riders on horseback approached with difficulty, ever closer.

They shook off the frost and snow, revealing the uniforms of the soldiers of the Prince of Huaiyang's mansion.

A note from the author:

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I'm so happy to see the nutrient solution is almost at 1000! [heart eyes]

So the next update will be at 9 AM tomorrow.

The next chapter will be a little bit subversive.