Chapter 37: Failure to Welcome
Along with the news of the emperor's return to the capital, there was also news that His Majesty had found a commoner girl in Fengxian City and doted on her to the extreme.
When the news reached the palace, no one knew what was happening with the concubines. However, the servants below were talking about it. For a while, whenever they met, they would ask each other tacitly: Do you know?
I'm afraid things are going to change in the palace.
Since the emperor ascended the throne, he has always been indifferent to the old people in the former prince's mansion, but he has never treated them unfairly and often thinks about the concubines, so a delicate balance is maintained in the palace. Now this balance is about to be broken.
————
Yan Xuanyu personally gave Lian'er a surname to show his honor and favor. Now she should be called Chen Lian.
If she were an ordinary woman, Yan Xuanyu would never give someone a surname so casually, but...
The two of them were using each other, so there was no need to feel guilty.
Yan Xuanyu's points have exploded in the past few days. It's like he has opened the door to a new world. He has been hanging around Chen Lian for several days, with an expression of being completely bewitched. However, the only thing that makes him truly happy is the sound of the points increase notification in his ears that only he can hear.
He was finally able to complete his daily tasks as the tyrant emperor's favorite concubine.
The Jinyiwei had already carefully checked Chen Lian's identity, and the other party's background was indeed innocent as she said herself - Yan Xuanyu deliberately instructed to investigate it thoroughly. Now even the old ministers who had always disagreed had nothing to say, and only advised His Majesty not to be too obsessed with women.
With such a clean background, the coincidence that occurred is precisely the proof that the other party has problems.
Yan Xuanyu knew that this was enough to prove the depth of the scheming of the person behind Chen Lian. No matter how much he investigated, he could only say it was a coincidence.
This tactic is not without loopholes. Considering the meticulousness of the person behind it, using this "beauty trap" was probably just a test.
Test whether Yan Xuanyu is as stupid as they wish.
No matter what he wants to do by placing Chen Lian as a chess piece next to him, he will have to deal with him in secret. Apart from Chen Lian, there are countless tricks to deal with him. It is better to control Chen Lian, the chess piece in the open.
What's more, Yan Xuanyu already had a plan in mind, and he also wanted to use Chen Lian to do a few things.
"Master, something strange happened in Shenlian Courtyard at 3:00 PM last night." A figure hidden in the shadows said, "As you said, I did not intervene."
Yan Xuanyu nodded, "Keep watching."
The Great Zhou Dynasty's Royal Secret Guards have always been used only by the emperor. They are trained from a young age and have no human feelings other than loyalty to the emperor. When the late emperor left them to Yan Xuanyu, there were not many secret guards left.
Yan Xuanyu had never done anything serious with them before, except for using them to disguise himself when leaving the palace.
Not long after he came here, he asked people to adopt several groups of orphans. However, of course he would not train them like the royal secret guards of the Great Zhou Dynasty. They taught other things and they would appear in public in the future.
Chen Lian was quite patient. Since she had been accompanying Yan Xuanyu in Fengxian City, she had not made any unusual moves until she sent the letter last night.
Yan Xuanyu was not in a hurry to close the net, but cast a long line to catch the big fish.
Besides, it would be better to report the terrible situation around him now.
——————
As Yan Xuanyu had expected, the letter sent by Chen Lian was not received directly by the person behind the scenes, but passed through several hands before being delivered to the person behind the scenes, which was enough to show how cautious she was.
In the letter, Chen Lian said that she was now favored by the Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty and followed the emperor into the palace, but she was unable to obtain any useful intelligence.
The letter also said that the Emperor of the Great Zhou was incompetent and only knew how to enjoy himself.
If Yan Xuanyu saw this, he would definitely laugh. He and Shen Lian were either having fun or on the way to have fun all day long. The only time Shen Lian entered his study, not only did he not see any papers about the intelligence of the Great Zhou, but he only saw a few popular storybooks on the desk. Shen Lian knew these storybooks. They were all adapted from plays performed by a troupe in the capital. They were illustrated and easy to understand, and they were also read in restaurants.
A woman like Chen Lian would never even look at him in her life if it weren't for Yan Xuanyu's identity. Chen Lian likes a gentle and kind man, not a vulgar man who only cares about her appearance.
Of course Yan Xuanyu didn't know all this. The first important thing he did after returning to the palace was to summon the general who had returned to the palace to report on his work.
The emperor's cold shoulder made others see the new emperor's attitude towards military commanders, and also made many people feel relieved.
Yan Xuanyu was happy to see it succeed.
He now does not have enough power to compete with the aristocratic families who are mainly composed of civil officials, so he just "goes along with them".
…
Loyalty to the king, what the hell is loyalty to the king!
This is the voice of many generals.
One hundred and twenty years after the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it began to emphasize culture over military power. At that time, the Great Zhou Dynasty had just emerged from the chaos and separatism, and the peace and prosperity of the country and the people were naturally not comparable to the current situation of external and internal troubles.
The classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans were not much different from what Yan Xuanyu knew, except that the status of soldiers in the Great Zhou was extremely low now, which was also a policy to suppress military generals.
After having the military power in their hands, the military generals who were no longer constrained were bound to have active minds. Moreover, the emperor was far away, so it was not a bad idea for them to be local emperors in the border town. They served the country and the king based on the education of loyalty to the king. As a result, there were half and half of the military generals with the two mentalities. The actions of the previous emperor pushed the military generals to the extreme.
Today, the border guards in the surrounding cities are almost self-sufficient in food.
Yuan Kang was one of the few loyal generals in the Great Zhou Dynasty. He was not on good terms with other generals, and when he returned to the capital to report on his work, others were waiting to see him make a fool of himself.
Yuan Kang remained calm. No matter what ideas his soldiers had, they had to suppress them, otherwise they would be dealt with according to military law.
Although Yuan Kang was young, he held a high position among the military generals. His father was the General of Huaihua, who was conferred the title by Yan Xuanyu's original grandfather. As the only son of the former General of Huaihua, Yuan Kang inherited the position of General.
If it were someone else, just based on Yuan Kang's loyalty to the point of dying by running into someone, other generals would have suppressed him long ago.
However, Yuan Kang was a man of great ability. Not only was he strict in military discipline, he was also well-versed in the art of war and was an expert in the use of troops. He was also very skilled in spearmanship. Two years ago, when the Turks came to rob the border of the Great Zhou during the winter, Yuan Kang personally led his soldiers to guard the city gates.
When it comes to commanding troops and fighting wars, the generals respect him.
Yuan Kang, known as the God of War at the border, was arbitrarily arranged to wait for the emperor's summons in a three-story courtyard in the capital when he returned to the capital this year. This mansion was not even in the core circle where the dignitaries in the capital lived.
Every morning, you can hear the hawking of various vendors not far away.
It can be said that it is located in the vegetable market and is extremely noisy.
Yan Xuanyu didn't know about this. No matter how thoughtful he was, he couldn't be so thorough as to arrange the residence of a military general. These matters were handled by Prime Minister Jiang and others. Yan Xuanyu just didn't expect that party disputes would be so... low-quality and vicious?
Even the residence can be used for operation.
Yan Xuanyu wanted to fool that group of people and make them let down their guard, but he didn't intend to really offend Yuan Kang. You know, even good people can turn evil.
In fact, he dared to go south to Fengxian because he knew Yuan Kang's temperament.
...
Yuan Kang himself accepted it well.
You can't eat such fine food in the border town. This morning, Yuan Kang asked Yuan Xun to go out and buy three bowls of hot wontons.
"What have you figured out during this period of time?" Yuan Kang put down the bowl that looked like a small basin in front of him.
When Yuan Xun heard the general's question, he quickly wiped his mouth and said seriously, "I..."
But before he could rack his brains to think of a word, Yuan Kang said to himself: "I think the current emperor is not as the rumors say."
Yuan Kang lived in the capital for a period of time when he was a child. At that time, except for the residences of dignitaries, the outskirts of the capital were always dirty because of the merchants and peddlers traveling from south to north gathered here. However, from his observations over these days, he found that the streets were always clean. It was said that the emperor had ordered the construction of drainage facilities in the capital.
What specific changes have occurred in the people? Perhaps not too great, but Yuan Kang still feels that something is different.
When Yuan Xun heard this, he rolled his eyes where his general couldn't see.
I don't know what those common people think of the general now. Thinking of this, Yuan Xun sighed.
...
Since Yuan Kang came to Beijing, the mansion has only received visiting cards from a few veteran generals of the Great Zhou Dynasty. After breakfast today, Yuan Xun curiously brought a visiting card, which said that General Yuan was invited to have a chat at his mansion.
"General, are you going or not?" Yuan Xun asked.
The visiting card was vague and there was no guarantee that it might not be a trap. Yuan Xun grew up in the border area, but he had also heard about the twists and turns of the capital, and he became nervous for a moment.
Yuan Kang touched the invitation. The gold powder was something only the richest families would use.
He sniffed it again and found that the scent of this ink must be from rare and good ink.
"Go." Yuan Kang said. He also wanted to see who else wanted to follow his path now that the emperor's attitude was so clear.
...
That must be... the emperor himself.
Yuan Kang took a low-key carriage and turned left and right before arriving at a villa.
To the outside, this villa was claimed to be a place where a woman was redeemed by a patron of Zuixiang Pavilion, but in reality, it was Yan Xuanyu's property, so this statement did not arouse suspicion.
Yan Xuanyu also left the palace in a low-key manner. The scenery of the villa was elegant and decorated with strange rocks, which looked very interesting.
Yuan Kang entered the courtyard under the guidance of the doorman. He asked politely, "May I know who the host is?"
The doorman just smiled and said nothing.
Yuan Xun said impatiently: "Who is your master?! Why are you hiding and keeping us in suspense?"
He was just about to ask the other party what he was up to when he heard a clear male voice coming from the front.
"I failed to welcome you."
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