Dou Xi

: "I refused."

When Empress Dou said this, she looked calm and composed. However, Princess Xiangyang rubbed her cold fingers from time to time, and her nose felt a little sour for a moment.

"Why..."

"I know your father is sincere." Empress Dou smiled, and there was not a trace of mockery in her smile: "But if I agree, it will be fine for one or two days, but in the long run, the relationship between him and me will be more like that between monarch and subject than husband and wife."

"Isn't it good to be monarch and subject?"

Empress Dou shook her head: "Your father is stubborn and has a stubborn temper. He only thinks himself is the best. He may not be soft-hearted but he will never be tough. If you are his wife, he will respect and love you. But if he sees you as a subject, he will suppress you and will not allow you to disobey."

Princess Xiangyang bit her chopsticks lightly. Children should not criticize their parents. She did not say a word, but she had already raised the banner of approval in her heart.

Empress Dou told her daughter: "So, at that time, returning to the harem was my best choice."

In the days and nights of the next 33 years, Dou Xi also thought, what if she chose to enter the court? Later, she overturned this idea.

At that time, she entered the court not by herself, but by her husband's momentary sympathy and the monarch's momentary enthusiasm. The ministers respected her, not her, but the "empress". They would not give her a trap, but they would not regard her official uniform as a symbol of talent.

In their view, this was just a little willfulness that the emperor used to make the empress happy after he took power.

Retreat to the harem as the last lock and the last shield between the emperor and the ministers. Or enter the court and slowly become a minister who was sidelined...

In fact, she had no other choice.

And the experiences of these years have also verified her original conjecture - the wife's persuasion and the minister's advice, in the eyes of the emperor, have completely different meanings.

Empress Dou saw it very clearly -

"This world has never needed two swords with opposing tips. Too hard is easy to break, what it needs is -"

"A scabbard."

*

Xu Yanmiao took the imperial sword and left the capital.

He didn't know how to ride a horse, so he still took a bamboo cart. There were thunder and wind all the way.

Liang Rui couldn't help but look up at the sky, looking at the dark clouds in the sky and the lightning snakes wandering, and then looked back at Xu Yanmiao on the bamboo cart, with a lot of emotion in his heart.

It really deserves to be Bai Ze... There are wind and thunder to see you off when you travel.

"Bai Ze" also looked up at the sky.

[What a big thunderstorm...]

Xu Yanmiao was holding the imperial sword with a heavy heart.

Will a thunderbolt strike him to death later?

"Liang--Master--"

Xu Yanmiao shouted at the top of his voice.

The thunder rumbled, and Liang Rui could only raise his voice as much as possible to reply to him: "What--is--"

"Are we still going to change horses but not people this time?"

They were able to arrive in time before because they took the express delivery route, expediting for 600 miles, changing horses but not people. But doing so, they were really almost exhausted to death on the way. When they arrived in the capital, their legs were weak, their chest was burning and almost exploded, and every breath was accompanied by blood and smoke.

If it happened again, Xu Yanmiao didn't know if Liang Rui's body could still hold on.

Fortunately, Liang Rui pondered for a moment and said, "Do what you can. This time, you can take a fast horse. There is no need to rush. Before we left, the princess was not far from Fujian. I think she will arrive in two days."

Fast horses use only one horse. It is more than a little slower than rushing to replace the horse after the horse dies, but it is still faster than taking a car.

In just 20 days, Xu Yanmiao and Liang Rui arrived in Fujian.

It has been about two months since the disaster was reported. It cannot be said that the people have resumed their lives and work in peace, but wherever the two saw, the people still had some pale faces, but at least they were all intact and no one cut off their arms because of famine.

Xu Yanmiao heaved a sigh of relief: "I saw that even the withered dogtail grass in the wild was gone before, and I thought..."

Liang Rui also softened his expression: "I think it was the trip of His Highness and the Minister that stabilized the situation."

Otherwise, with that inspection, who knows what kind of hell Fujian would have become.

However, if the court had passed the strategy of printing precious banknotes to save the country, it would certainly not be so peaceful now.

Liang Rui glanced at Xu Yanmiao. And Xu Yanmiao also thought of precious banknotes, and his mood suddenly became indescribable.

He has been cautious since he traveled through time, and he has lived one day at a time. Now... he has done something for this era?

"Mr. Liang! Mr. Xu!"

Princess Wanshou's voice came.

Xu Yanmiao looked up and saw the princess coming over tiredly, obviously she had worked hard these days.

But her expression was much more resolute than before, and even her soft voice was dignified: "How is the matter of the precious banknote? What did His Majesty say?"

Xu Yanmiao described the matter from his perspective and expressed his feelings: "Fortunately, we arrived in time, and His Majesty was also open-minded, so he stopped this matter."

Princess Wanshou breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."

Liang Rui noticed that there was an official with one eye blind next to Princess Wanshou: "Who is this..."

The official bowed and whispered: "I am the prefect of Xinghua, my surname is Gao, my name is Wanhe, and my courtesy name is Changsheng."

- Xinghua Prefecture is a prefecture under the jurisdiction of Fujian.

When Xu Yanmiao heard the name, he subconsciously thought, "This name is so auspicious."

[I always feel that the old emperor would be so pleased to hear it that he would give him a promotion.]

...

Capital.

"Yawn!" The old emperor sneezed loudly.

Empress Dou was surprised: "Did you catch a cold?" She hurriedly asked someone to call the imperial physician.

The old emperor waved his hands: "Nothing, just an itchy nose."

He calculated the time: "That bastard should have arrived in Fujian by now. I wonder what he is doing now? He has never provided disaster relief, so he must be very worried." Empress Dou didn't know whether

to laugh or cry.

How could there be an emperor who took pleasure in the misfortune of his ministers?

...

Princess Wanshou thought Xu Yanmiao was good in every way, except that he liked to talk about his father to his son.

—— He didn't know that his inner voice could be heard.

Princess Wanshou's smile became slightly awkward, but she couldn't avoid it immediately, otherwise it would seem that she was giving the two men a cold shoulder.

Liang Rui coughed and said, "It turns out to be Prefect Gao."

He also introduced himself and Xu Yanmiao.

When the Xinghua prefect heard that Liang Rui was the head of the Ministry of Justice, the smile on his face faded a lot: "I have met Chief Liang."

When he heard that Xu Yanmiao was a ninth-rank official in the Ministry of Personnel, he could only bow and say, "It turns out to be Secretary Xu."

The prefect was a fourth-rank official, and the head of the Ministry of Justice was only a sixth-rank official, not to mention a secretary in the Ministry of Personnel.

I'm afraid the prefect is still muttering in his heart, why except for a minister, everyone else in the court is an official of low rank.

—— The princess is not included. The title of princess can override everything. Therefore, this person is very enthusiastic about the princess.

Liang Rui knew his indifference very well, but he didn't think it was so contemptuous. Who doesn't want to get in the upper camp? He didn't do anything bad, he was just not enthusiastic. So he returned the greeting and asked the prefect about the disaster relief. The other party answered in a very organized manner, and it was obvious that he had been doing it himself.

Liang Rui had a better impression of him.

After a few brief chats, the prefect said that he had to prepare for the disaster and it was inconvenient to stay for long. After he left, Liang Rui's voice couldn't help but carry a bit of admiration: "There are not many people willing to do practical things nowadays."

Princess Wanshou nodded: "Indeed. Do you know how this high-ranking prefect lost his eyes?"

Liang Rui became interested: "How?"

Princess Wanshou said: "This man was originally a Yuanwailang. In the past, there was a drought in a certain place. Your Majesty strictly prohibited the brewing of wine in this place. The prefect disturbed the people because of this, and also Wine-making equipment was found in a certain family's home. So the family was to be sentenced to death as a warning to others. Gao Changsheng argued with the prefect, saying that how could the man be convicted when only wine-making equipment was found but he was not caught brewing wine? The prefect was unable to win the argument at first, and then he used the pressure from Your Majesty to ask if Gao Changsheng was going to defy His Majesty's authority. He also said that since his family had the equipment, who could vouch for them and guarantee that they had no intention of brewing wine? "

[Huh? Is there such a thing? Let me check! 】

Liang Rui's eyebrows jumped: "What happened next?"

Princess Wanshou was quite emotional: "Our high-ranking prefect suddenly dug out one of his eyes and said firmly: I will use this eye to guarantee them. Later, the people from the yamen went to check and confirmed that the equipment had been placed in the cellar for more than three years. The lock of the cellar was covered with dust. They had not brewed wine for a long time, but they were too lazy to clean the cellar. I heard that the inspector Yu Shi learned of his deeds and was deeply moved. He recommended him to be the prefect of Xinghua."

Liang Rui was quite moved: "This man is really hot-tempered..."

[Bullshit! He spread that for his own reputation! He dug out his eyes to please his superiors! ]

Liang Rui choked in his throat with the second half of his sentence. He couldn't spit out a complete breath and was almost choked to death.

His smile disappeared and his pupils trembled slightly.

What does it mean to please your superior?

Xu Yanmiao never hides anything.

The young man's eyes were slightly empty, but he was actually looking at something they couldn't see, his eyes widened with shock.

[He he he he——]

[Because Shangguan had damaged eyes, and his eyesight was famously good, known as eagle eyes, on Shangguan's 60th birthday, they dug out his eyes, soaked them in wine and gave them to Shangguan? ! ]

[Is he sick? ]

[Shangguan actually gladly accepted it and was very touched? ? ? ]

Princess Wanshou's hands were shaking slightly under her sleeves.

She really wanted to ask, what's going on in Fujian! A patrol carves erotic pictures on his own household bowls and chopsticks, and another is willing to take his own eyes in order to get promoted!

And that unknown superior, when he found out that he was being given an eyeball, shouldn’t he be terrified the first time?...

Xu Lang was right, are you all sick? !

Liang Rui: "..."

Thank you, now I can’t speak anymore.

Suddenly a voice rang out: "Your Highness..."

Princess Wanshou looked over subconsciously and found that it was the Xinghua prefect who had returned. She was startled and took a half step back reflexively.

She knew that this man only dug out his own eyes and did not hurt others. At most, he would do anything to get promoted, but... but...

Princess Wanshou silently stepped back a little. The

Xinghua prefect was shocked.

What happened? He finally left a good impression in front of the princess. The princess thought that he loved the people like his own children and looked at him differently. Why did she step back when she saw him now?

Princess Wanshou calmed herself down and tried to put on a business smile: "Governor Gao, what can I do for you?"

I!!!

Her Highness is very kind to others and she never called herself that before!

The prefect of Xinghua regretted it so much that he would not have left them for a while if he had known this just now - could it be that these two people said something to the princess? The prefect

of Xinghua glanced at Xu Yanmiao and Liang Rui, and his eyes only stayed on Xu Yanmiao for less than a breath.

This is definitely not the kind of person who looks innocent and harmless. You can tell from looking at him that he won't last long in the officialdom!

His eyes were fixed on Liang Rui, his eyes dim.