Chapter 369: The Jade Seal Reappears
Beigong...
The past life here was definitely not a good memory for Liu Xie.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion in the seventh year of Guanghe gave Emperor Ling of Han a legitimate reason to move from the North Palace to the South Palace in order to strengthen the connection with the court, while the North Palace completely became the living place of the concubines.
At that time, Empress He was in charge of the power of the imperial palace. Because of his brother, General He Jin, even Empress Dowager Dong, who raised Liu Xie, had to give in to him in order to avoid conflicts. The status of Liu Xie, the prince who was favored by Liu Hong, became somewhat delicate.
Later, this place became his, but also Dong Zhuo's.
When Liu Xie set foot here, this palace seemed to have been cleaned up and weeds pulled out. Although there was no human voice, it still exuded a chill that made him feel cold all over.
He tightened his cotton coat and suddenly felt a little regretful for coming here.
If it weren't for the fact that there seemed to be no guards left here due to a shortage of manpower in Luoyang, Liu Xie almost wanted to run away in case someone discovered his identity after seeing him as an uninvited guest.
However, just as he was beginning to feel fear for this place and wanted to leave, he suddenly heard the sound of a golden bell coming from a courtyard not far from him.
The sound was fleeting, as if it was just Liu Xie's auditory hallucination.
But what he could be sure of was that it was a voice that really existed.
[You are not afraid that if you lure him in this way, he will think there is a ghost. 】The system grumbled.
Qiao Yan stood on a distant building, holding a telescope in his hand and watching Liu Xie's movements.
The young man had no idea that his every move at this moment was seen by another person, and he didn't know that even the childhood-like scene he had seen earlier was planned by others.
But perhaps, it was because the gaze directed at him did not harbor any malice, which is why this young man, who has always been sensitive, did not realize it.
And when this communication for him takes place between people and an invisible system, it is even less likely for him to hear it.
In response to the system's question, Qiao Yan replied, "You are wrong. He will not retreat because of ghosts and gods. Everything he has experienced has made him very clear that the most terrifying thing in this world is definitely not gods and ghosts, but the human heart."
He had experienced the Han Ling Emperor tricking Dong Chong into death, using his life to lure He Jin into the palace to have him executed. After seeing Dong Zhuo enter the capital, he sentenced Empress He to death and opened the coffin of He Jin's brother He Miao and mutilated his body, exercising the power of life and death in the court. I have seen Li Jue seize power after Dong Zhuo's ambitions were exhausted, and use the emperor as his puppet toy.
How could he still be afraid of ghosts and gods at this moment, even the ghosts and gods of his Han ancestors?
As soon as Qiao Yan finished speaking, the system followed Qiao Yan's line of sight and saw that Liu Xie identified the direction from which the sound of the golden bell came, hesitated for only a moment, and then started walking again.
He is indeed not afraid of ghosts and gods.
He had not been on the throne for four years at this time. If his father really knew about this and was dissatisfied with his decision to hide in the mountains and give up the throne, and wanted to take his life, he would have nothing to say.
As for the rest, he really didn't think that there was anything he could be targeted by ghosts or gods.
The sound of the golden bell, one of the eight musical notes, and the previous scene that seemed like a phantom of memory made this native Han royal family member feel that someone was trying to give him some hint.
With this thought in mind, Liu Xie finally chose to step into the courtyard despite the silence all around.
Every blade of grass and every tree in the Luoyang North Palace seemed familiar yet strange. But when he arrived here, stepping on the thin winter frost on the ground in the courtyard, a sense of familiarity far stronger than the strangeness caused by years of separation surged into his heart, just because -
This is exactly where he used to live.
To be precise, this was where he lived when he was still a prince.
Just as the person he met when he first arrived in Luoyang said, Nangong had been renovated into a place for officials to work, while Beigong still maintained its original appearance.
A fire in the Nan Palace of Luoyang burned away the little dignity that Emperor Ling of Han had left as the Son of Heaven after his death, and the fire in the Bei Palace of Luoyang, which was started by the Yuan family when they intended to rescue Liu Bian, inevitably spread to this place, leaving this palace covered with a layer of blackened color.
Liu Xie walked to the door, stretched out his hand and pushed it open and walked in.
I don't know if it was because of the years of damage from wind, rain and drought, as well as disrepair, or because of the residual effects of the fire, but the door almost fell off when I pushed it open.
Liu Xie looked up at the door frame. For some reason he did not feel that the situation was sad. Instead, he felt a bit of fun in revisiting an old place.
After going through the embarrassment of almost having no food to eat and living in poverty in the mountains for several years, he really had nothing to worry about.
Perhaps it was because after Dong Zhuo was expelled, Luoyang was still under the jurisdiction of Henan Yin and was well protected under the jurisdiction of Sima Fang. No one passing through Luoyang tried to find wealth from the imperial palace and plunder the place.
When Liu Xie stepped into the house, passing through the uncleaned interior, he actually saw a wooden sculpture on the bookshelf that his father had given him.
He picked it up carefully and tried to brush off the dust on it, but found that the dust stuck in the gaps had accumulated quite deeply. If he wanted to clean it thoroughly, he would have to wash it with water.
Thinking of the well in the courtyard of his old palace, Liu Xie walked back to the courtyard holding the wooden sculpture and came to the well.
But just as he was about to reach out for the wooden barrel beside him, he suddenly realized that the well in the palace was not very deep, which meant that after two consecutive years of drought, the well here should have dried up long ago.
He immediately put down the bucket and looked into the well. Sure enough, there was no water reflecting the sky in the well, only a dry area at the bottom.
The most eye-catching thing at the bottom of the well is a brush, which Liu Xie accidentally threw into the well. Now, as the water has dried up, it has reappeared in front of him.
The unexpected appearance of this old thing made him instinctively keep his eyes on this place for a while. It was during this brief pause in his gaze that Liu Xie suddenly discovered that there seemed to be something at the edge of the bottom of the well.
It was a piece of oilcloth wrapped around what appeared to be a square object.
Because the light in the well was dim and the oilcloth was almost earth-colored, he did not notice the existence of the object at first sight.
Oilcloth bag...
Liu Xie thought about it and couldn't remember that he had thrown such a thing at the bottom of the well.
In theory, his curiosity at this moment would not bring him any unnecessary benefits. Since he had not discovered where the sound of the golden bell came from, he should just turn around and leave.
But perhaps because this revisit to his old place brought back scenes of his childhood memories, which made him feel somewhat nostalgic for the place he was in, he hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to salvage the package and see what was inside.
The vague square outline of the oilcloth bag told him that this was not an ordinary discarded item. He searched his bedroom and found an iron hook, then hung it down with a barely usable well rope.
If it weren't for his life as a farmer in the past few years, it would have been almost impossible for Liu Xie to successfully hang the iron hook on the knotted gap of the oilcloth bag and then lift it up.
Fortunately, this experience allowed the cloth bag to successfully fall into his hands.
He didn't know if it was his illusion, but when his hand placed on the corner of the oilcloth bag that was covered with dust, he suddenly felt a little palpitated.
For a moment, the only sound that could be heard in the quiet Luoyang North Palace was his own breathing.
"It has come to this point, why are you still hesitating?" Liu Xie said in a low voice with self-mockery, and put his hand back on the package.
What surprised him was that the oilcloth bag did not contain a wooden box, but an iron box, and it was an iron box that fit perfectly.
But perhaps because he was too anxious, he didn't even install a lock on the iron box to prevent it from being opened by others.
Liu Xie carefully opened the iron box with some rust on the edges, and then took out a wooden box from it.
At this moment, his previous mood of inspecting the relics of the Han Palace had completely changed. If someone could sit face to face with him, it would not be difficult to find that when Liu Xie got the wooden box, his face became particularly serious.
He had seen the box.
When his father was still the emperor, Liu Xie once saw this box in the Yutang Palace!
This is... the box containing the imperial seal!
As early as when Dong Zhuo attacked Luoyang, the imperial seal had disappeared.
No one knows whether the jade seal was picked up by someone and secretly hidden during the war, or whether it was entrusted to close ministers such as Zhang Rang by the emperor's father and then hidden in a safe place by them, and disappeared completely with Zhang Rang's death in Mangshan.
For more than six years, the imperial seal never appeared. This meant that although the courts in Chang'an and Yecheng each had their own excuses that the other was not orthodox, neither of them could produce proof that they were the orthodox Han dynasty.
Liu Xie originally thought that when the world was reunified, the imperial seal would not appear anymore, but would disappear from the eyes of the world as Luoyang would no longer be the capital.
When he lived as a commoner in Hanzhong, he even hoped very much that the imperial seal would not fall into the hands of his brother at an inappropriate time.
But Liu Xie never expected that, as if in a dream, he returned to this "old residence" again, and the imperial seal actually appeared in his hands!
No, that's not right. It's just an outer shell now. It doesn't mean that the jade seal is contained in this wooden box.
But when Liu Xie held the wooden box in his hand, the weight made him feel that it was not an empty box.
At the moment when he opened the buckle of the wooden box, his hands even trembled a little.
The lid of the wooden box opened in front of him, revealing the... jade seal inside.
It is indeed the imperial seal!
The gold edging on the seal due to bumps on the corners, the seal's material of fine Hetian jade, its size of four inches square, and the eight large characters "Received the Mandate from Heaven, May You Live Long and Prosper" were all exactly the same as Liu Xie's impression of it.
The moment he recognized this object, Liu Xie even wondered whether he should put it back into the triple package of the wooden box, iron box and oilcloth bag, put it back to the bottom of the well, or put it in a place where it would be less likely to be discovered.
After all, this imperial seal is such a hot potato, and he is no longer the emperor of the Han Dynasty!
But as this thought flashed through his mind, another idea also emerged in his mind.
Why was this imperial seal hidden in his residence when he was still a prince?
Was this an instruction from his father during his lifetime, containing some kind of expectation for him?
When Liu Xie thought of this possibility, he felt that if he put the jade seal back to a place where it could not see the light of day, or even let no one know its whereabouts for several years, he would be a real sinner.
But he couldn't help but question himself at this moment. Even if he took the jade seal away from here with the idea of not disappointing his father's arrangement, what would he do with it?
It might be a good choice to find an opportunity to return it to the court in Chang'an, so that Liu Yu can hold the imperial seal, the legitimate imperial artifact, and launch an expedition against the court in Yecheng, thereby restoring unity to the world as soon as possible.
But if the imperial seal was entrusted to someone else for delivery, Liu Xie would never feel at ease.
If he delivered it personally, it would be bound to disrupt his originally peaceful life.
And the fact that he was the one handing a knife to his brother's "political enemies" also made him tormented by the unspeakable choice in his heart.
At this moment of dilemma, he suddenly heard the sound of orderly footsteps of a patrol guard not far from his courtyard.
Liu Xie was startled. Without thinking, he wrapped the imperial seal in oilcloth and put it in his arms. Then he hurriedly hid under the wall of the courtyard and listened carefully to the movements outside.
What relieved him was that the guards seemed to be just conducting regular patrols on the avenue inside the North Palace of Luoyang, and had no intention of conducting any in-depth search operations, nor were they approaching in the direction where he was.
Their voices quickly faded away, and soon their footsteps could no longer be heard from where Liu Xie was.
He touched the bulge in his arms, and his expression became subtle for a moment.
All the thoughts that came to his mind before he put it in his arms were temporarily suppressed because of the sudden hiding action just now.
Liu Xie thought to himself that if he suddenly discovered the jade seal, it was destined to happen, and taking it away might be the inevitable result of some kind of hint.
Instead of worrying about whether the existence of this object would bring him any unnecessary risks, it would be better to think about whether he would regret it for the rest of his life if he left the seal here and let it fall into the hands of someone who shouldn't own it.
In that case, just take it away first!
He pressed the hidden object on his chest.
Having made a living by chopping wood, fishing, and making medicine over the past few years, he looked a little stronger than his peers. The jade seal was a little flat, so it was difficult for people to tell that it was an object of this shape placed there.
Feeling somewhat relieved, Liu Xie listened towards the outside room again.
Hearing that the patrolling guards who had just gone away had not appeared again, he hurriedly opened the gate of the courtyard and escaped through the small door he had come through.
It was not until he stood outside the Luoyang North Palace that he finally felt his rapid heartbeat return to normal.
However, thinking of the close connection between the North and South Palaces in Luoyang, Liu Xie did not dare to delay and headed west quickly, first rushing to the nearby streets where there were more people.
But obviously his vigilance and worries were unnecessary.
In order to allow him to successfully take the imperial seal from the North Palace, Qiao Yan had already transferred a lot of soldiers who were supposed to be stationed at Dingzhong Temple where Zhong Changtong was located, on the grounds that sufficient guards were needed.
The only team left were the ones whose noise Liu Xie heard.
They had also received instructions from Qiao Yan early on and would not pass by the courtyard where the jade seal was hidden. How could they possibly discover Liu Xie, the "accidental" intruder, and arrest him for trespassing into the Forbidden Palace?
"I was right." Looking at Liu Xie's back as he successfully escaped, Qiao Yan put down the telescope in his hand and smiled.
The system asked: [Did you guess correctly? 】
She replied: "Liu Xie may not be suitable to be the emperor. In the late Han Dynasty, when many heroes emerged, he was not the emperor who could save the Han Dynasty from collapse. But he was a qualified descendant of the emperor. At least... he still had a sense of responsibility that had not been wiped out by the hardships in the past."
So when the imperial seal appeared in front of Liu Xie, he would choose to keep it first.
This is the destination chosen by Qiao Yan for the returned imperial seal.
More than six years ago during the Dong Zhuo Rebellion, Qiao Yan attacked Luoyang. While searching for the whereabouts of Liu Bian and Yuan Ji in Nangong, she accidentally found the jade seal hidden by Zhang Rang in Nangong. However, due to her transaction with the farming system, the jade seal was used as a bargaining chip and exchanged to the other party.
To Qiao Yan at that time, the existence of the imperial seal was like chicken ribs. He might even be like Yuan Shu in history, who got into trouble because of the existence of this thing. Therefore, exchanging it, making it disappear from everyone's sight, and getting her a considerable amount of farming experience is an absolutely worthwhile deal.
As it turned out, she did not make any mistake in this transaction.
Her rapid rise from the territory of Bingzhou was related to the fact that she had dealt a heavy blow to the Xianbei forces on the northern grasslands, which put Bingzhou in a stable and developing situation. It was also closely related to the fact that the agricultural reforms allowed her to accumulate a considerable amount of initial wealth.
As the area of land under her control expanded, this still beneficial experience increased the impact she could have exponentially.
In the face of this profit, even if the imperial seal that was given away was lost, it would not be a big loss for Qiao Yan. But obviously, the host of the farming system who could offer the seal as a bargaining chip could not be a mediocre person.
She had even returned the imperial seal before the ten-year period they had originally agreed upon.
As she said when she returned the imperial seal, a monarch who is truly powerful to a certain extent does not need to rely on the imperial seal to determine his legitimacy. At best, he would just treat it as icing on the cake. Perhaps if she pointed to a stone and said it was a jade seal, someone would agree with her statement.
Now, her strategy of building high walls and storing abundant food has achieved a phased leap forward, and the imperial seal can be returned.
This jade seal returned to Qiao Yan's hands two months ago, so she immediately decided to let this item see the light of day again when "Chang Yan" appeared in the world.
Now it has fallen into Liu Xie's hands as Qiao Yan hoped, and the arrangement is half completed. It also means that she doesn't have to test the other alternative plans she had prepared one by one. This is undoubtedly good news.
The system was still somewhat worried: [You have waited for so many years to get the imperial seal back, are you really at ease leaving it in Liu Xie's hands? 】
He was once the emperor!
The emperor presented the imperial seal to the emperor. In the eyes of the people of the Han Dynasty, this was exactly the same as the mandate of heaven.
Zhong Changtong just said that there is no such thing as destiny, so it is probably useless.
"Of course I'm worried." Qiao Yan gave an answer that surprised the system a little.
It thought that Qiao Yan made the decision so decisively that he would say don't worry without hesitation.
But then it heard Qiao Yan say: "But don't forget, Liu Xie didn't come to Luoyang alone, he has a good helper of mine by his side. The bond of several years has made it impossible for him to leave without saying a word and holding the jade seal; among all the information he has received, I am still the best choice for him to choose someone to take refuge with; what's more, since I already knew that he was in Luoyang, and I arranged such a drama to get him to come to Beigong, how could I let him escape without my noticing."
Liu Xie's adoptive father would not betray her because they were the refugees she brought back when she asked Chu Yan to take yam to the Central Plains for trade in the second year of Zhongping. They told Liu Xie that his "early deceased son" also got a job in a factory under her after completing his studies at Leping Academy.
Whether for the sake of saving their lives or their son's future, they will continue to play the role of adoptive parents until Qiao Yan says it can be terminated.
Liu Xie would not suddenly disappear from her sight unless he suddenly gained the ability to fly.
What she was doing at this moment was just moving the jade seal from the well to another storage location.
Since it is not a loss, why should you feel upset?
[But this can only ensure that the jade seal is not lost. Now it has been successfully handed over to Liu Xie. It cannot ensure that Liu Xie, who holds the jade seal, will act strictly according to your wishes, right? 】The system asked.
It is aware that the question it raised was not wrong.
After all, Liu Xie was an independent individual, and even a Han emperor who was trained by Emperor Ling of Han as his successor.
Qiao Yan could give him a pair of adoptive parents without him being prepared, and also let him live in seclusion in the mountains for many years, as if Li Jue had already plotted to murder him many years ago, making him disappear from the scene since then.
But this only restricted his interpersonal relationships and his decision to stay or leave, but could not make his thoughts completely synchronized with Qiao Yan's, making him a puppet while holding the imperial seal.
Perhaps because it had been with Qiao Yan for a long time, the system had vaguely guessed the role that Qiao Yan intended Liu Xie to play, but... just as it worried, why would Liu Xie help her complete the ending of this drama?
"Why not?" Qiao Yan asked back.
She said the previous "I'm worried" decisively, and the current "Why not" also makes people have no doubt about her confidence at the moment she said it.
She looked at the North Palace below with a stern expression, "If I can't even convince Liu Xie, who has been subtly influenced by me for several years, to stand on my side, how dare I risk the world's disapproval and usurp the throne!"
system:【……】
The system was stunned by the solemn and resolute aura that came towards it.
But she was right.
The person she wanted to convince was never just Liu Xie, nor would she stop at just Liu Xie.
Since she wanted to usurp the Han Dynasty's foundation, how could she allow her people to have a second choice?
Now that Liu Xie has removed his status as an emperor, he can be considered one of the people.
As for whether she can do this...
Anyway, this system doesn't even have any reference experience in training the world's best strategist, so it's natural that it can't think of any rebuttal to such a declaration aimed at the throne.
After being stuck for a long moment, it replied: [That’s right, when you hold the imperial seal, your luck value will not decrease. 】
When the imperial seal returned to Qiao Yan's hands two months ago, it was very different from when she first came into contact with the seal. Even the system's built-in fortune judgment no longer believed that, given her current status, holding the imperial seal would be a disastrous action for her.
It was even smart enough to increase its luck by another five points.
Then how could she not know about the placement and official appearance of the imperial seal?
Under such circumstances, the system found it difficult not to feel a little sympathy for Liu Xie as he left Luoyang North Palace with the jade seal.
It is hard to say whether it is a unique tragedy that an emperor is manipulated in this way.
But it quickly thought, why should it feel sorry for Liu Xie?
Just as Qiao Yan once said in a conversation with Guo Jia -
In the torrent of this era, there can only be one winner standing to the end.
Regardless of whether others would be like this, at least Liu Xie would not be like this.
At this moment, this person who was destined not to be the winner was already standing among the crowd at Dingzhong Temple in the southern suburbs of Luoyang.
After leaving Beigong, he originally wanted to find a place to hide the imperial seal. However, he thought that there were so many people coming and going in Luoyang at this moment, and with the coming of winter it was time to turn over the land again. Who knew if someone would dig the seal out of the ground again.
Then his action of taking it out of Beigong would become meaningless!
If he was sent back to his temporary residence in Chang'an City first, Liu Xie would not be able to explain to his adoptive father why he turned back home halfway after clearly saying that he was going to watch Zhong Changtong's debate at Dingzhongguan.
It would be better for him to pretend that he had not been to the Beigong Palace, and that he did not have such a token of the emperor with him at the moment, and he could just go and watch as if nothing had happened.
The feeling of the jade seal pressed against his chest made Liu Xie feel more at ease when he was among the crowd.
No one would have thought that this man, who had nothing special in appearance and could even be said to have flaws, could be the former emperor.
No one would have thought that he would appear in such an occasion with the imperial seal.
At this moment, everyone's attention was focused on the platform built in the distance.
The book of policy papers written by Qiao Yan in Dingzhong Temple eleven years ago was only seen by Xu Shao, Chen Lin, Wang Qian and others, which made those who were outside the temple at that time and had no chance to see it feel regretful.
But now Qiao Yan is the powerful Sima in the world, and it is impossible for him to participate in such activities to compete for fame.
But at this moment, the author of "Changyan", which she allowed to be printed, appeared here to deal with the various doubts that were about to come, which was also a kind of response.
The construction of this high platform, as a gesture to the crowd, can be regarded as making up for the regrets of that year.
"That's Zhong Chang Gongli? He's really young!"
Liu Xie heard people around him talking, and then looked towards the platform, where he saw a young man in green clothes with wide sleeves standing.
Although Liu Xie could not see the other person's face clearly due to the distance between them, as people around him said, his demeanor and bearing clearly showed the arrogance of a young man, so much so that people felt that he was incompatible with the mature and sophisticated political works.
But when they thought that this person might have been pushed to the front at the instruction of Qiao Yan, they couldn't help but think that nearly four years ago, Qiao Yan ascended to the position of Grand Marshal at the age of 19, and the behavior of this young man did not seem so difficult to understand.
There was a moment of silence around him, and Zhong Changtong bowed to the people around him and said in a clear voice: "I am not talented, but I dare to use "Chang Yan" with more than 100,000 words to ask for your guidance."
Having successfully revised Changyan and promoted it in printing, it was far from time for him to relax.
Just as he and Qiao Yan had promised, since he named himself Gongzhi, he would definitely stand on the foundations laid by the prince and argue with the ignorant people!
It also proves the truth! ：,n,
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