In the tent, Li Xia was sitting by the couch, while Zhang Rou was lying down. The scene looked less like a monarch and his ministers, and more like a junior visiting an elder who was sick.
Zhang Rou, however, did not dare to regard herself as an elder, and said in a pleading tone: "Your Majesty asked me like this, and I was very frightened. I have never done anything to fight for the throne for your concubine."
He was really frightened.
The crime Zhang Shiyilang committed this time can be either big or small. At the most serious level, it is treason, but at the most petty level, it can be laughed off.
In the Great Mongolia, it would have been impossible to detect Zhang Shiyilang's secretive behavior. For example, the Zhang family has done many similar things in the past few decades, and the Khan's court didn't care about it at all.
But in the Song Dynasty, they would not dare to accept the surrender of local princes like the Zhang family, so naturally there would be no such thing.
Li Xia, on the other hand, seemed to be a little bit serious. He could have pretended that the incident had never happened, but he wanted to punish Zhang Shiyilang at this important moment of attacking Yanjing. This should not be done. It was possible that he was deliberately taking the opportunity to undermine the power of the Zhang family.
"Don't be afraid." Li Xia seemed to be able to see through Zhang Rou's thoughts and said, "I'm not here to trick you into suppressing the Zhang family. On the contrary, I'm here to calm your mind."
"Old minister is stupid."
"Eleventh son committed a crime. I could have pretended it never happened. But doing so would have harmed the Zhang family. Yes, the Zhang family is attacking Yanjing now, and the Zhang family is of great use, so let's keep the matter vague and wait for someone to come in the future.
If this matter is exposed, how will the Zhang family deal with it?"
Li Xia's eyes were quite sincere, and he added: "You have just joined, I have to make my principles clear to you from the very beginning, tell you what bottom lines cannot be touched, and the laws of this dynasty cannot be trampled on. Only in this way can the monarch and his ministers live in harmony for a long time.
.”
Zhang Rou was a little sluggish.
He never thought that Li Xia was such a person who seemed to have no city.
Not like a king.
Li Xia is not Kublai Khan, Meng Ge, Wokuotai, or Zhao Yun and Zhao Yu from the south.
If he were an ordinary person, this direct way of speaking would be taboo.
But he is not an ordinary person, he is always him.
"Your Majesty's treatment of Erlang and Eleventh Lang, I will never say anything in the slightest."
"Okay, this is my first promise to you. I will deal with them fairly and not take the opportunity to implicate the Zhang family. Don't worry, Eleventh Lang's crime is not serious in the first place." Li Xia said, "I also promise you that I will not engage in checks and balances.
That way, I won’t use the Dong family to balance the Zhang family, and I won’t be afraid of who will be the master. I ask you if we don’t fight. First of all, I won’t deliberately let the ministers fight among themselves.”
Zhang Judao: "I think I understand what your Majesty means, but I'm just a little bit at a loss."
"Because you think I'm too naive?" Li Xia smiled. After all, he was Zhang Rou's son-in-law. His smile made Zhang Rou feel a little friendly, but it might have been an illusion.
"I'm not used to it," Zhang Judao said. "This is the first time for me to serve such a magnanimous king."
"This is the first time under my rule that we have such a big family as the Zhang family. We really need to get along with each other." Li Xia said, "If we don't get along well, if we think we are in sync with each other as soon as we get started, and attack in a hurry, we will get into trouble."
"Then the old minister also wants to say a few words from his heart."
Zhang Rou relaxed a lot and her voice slowed down.
"I am seventy-eight this year, and I know that I am afraid that I will not live for another two years. When I close my eyes, I will miss these descendants. It is a pity that I surrendered to Your Majesty too late, and I was unable to make much contribution to Your Majesty.
It is because of this uneasiness that I thought about making more meritorious deeds, but neglected to discipline those unscrupulous people."
Li Xia asked: "Can you feel at ease after making a contribution?"
Before Zhang Rou could answer, Li Xia patted him on the shoulder.
"In the past, there were turbulent times. The Song, Liao, Jin, and Meng were slaughtered in this area with rivers of blood. You had to form a stronghold to protect yourself, and you would always feel uneasy."
The last two words came to Zhang Rou's heart, and he sighed: "Yes, I feel uneasy."
"The Kingdom of Jin is decayed and Jia Yu wants to kill you. You are uneasy. You surrendered to Meng Yuan and saw them slaughtering the city wantonly. Seeing Li Fen dead and his family wiped out, you are still uneasy. From the local tycoon
You have become powerful enough to be a prince, and then become a relative of the emperor, but you are still uneasy. Now you are thinking about finding a posthumous position for your daughter, and in the future you are thinking about finding a throne for your grandson. Are you at ease?"
"I don't dare, I don't dare."
"It's okay, this is a rare opportunity, so we should have a heart-to-heart talk." Li Xia said, "If the Zhang family really wants to fight for this post, reserve position, after a few years, you will only be more frightened when you close your eyes. Because you don't know when you die.
After that, future generations will face great blessing or great disaster."
Zhang Rou opened her eyes wide again, feeling a little scared.
Li Xia also knows that it is too early to say this. The problem is that Zhang Rou's age is here, which is only one or two years at most.
Talking these words clearly to Zhang Rou while he was still alive was not only to help the old man feel at ease in his final years, but also to hope that he could teach his children and grandchildren a lesson and prepare for a rainy day, so that there would be fewer disasters in the future of this dynasty.
"Your uneasiness is not because the Zhang family is not powerful enough or their position is not high enough, but because you have lived in turmoil all your life. And this turmoil is what I want to change." Li Xia said in a determined tone.
He concluded: "Now, the world has begun to change."
Of course, he couldn't persuade a person to give up his ambition with these few words. In short, he was telling a noble family how to survive in his dynasty.
Whether the other party will do it or not is another matter, he should make it clear first.
"In this new world, it is not necessary to have a higher education level to feel more at ease, but rather to feel at ease without violating national laws."
After Zhang Rou heard this sentence, she thought it was very simple at first. After thinking about it carefully, she could vaguely feel how powerful and peaceful the dynasty described by this sentence should be.
As long as they do not violate national laws, they can feel at ease. For ordinary people, not only must the sea, rivers and rivers be clear and public order is good, but they must also have enough to eat. For high-ranking families like them, they must also have a benevolent monarch and a clear political situation.
"Your Majesty, is this possible?" "I will keep working towards it."
Zhang Rou looked at Li Xia's young face and felt envious of this vitality.
He probably has some understanding of Li Xia's ambitions.
"Hearing His Majesty say this, I feel relieved a lot."
Li Xia patted Zhang Rou's quilt again and said: "Children and grandchildren will have their own blessings, so don't worry about them anymore. Let's put it this way, I am twenty-eight years old. I am still very young. What suspicions, checks and balances, competition for reserves, etc.
There is no need to wait any longer. What our new dynasty wants to achieve is a more magnificent cause."
Zhang Rou gradually became a little stunned as she listened, and finally murmured: "Yes, the old minister was really not used to it at first." He had stayed under Kublai Khan for too long and always felt that Kublai Khan
It is Mingjun.
But in fact, I really spent too much time in my life to preserve the family, preserve the literati, books, and promote Han law, and in the last few years, I spent all the time in the precarious situation of not being trusted as a Han official.
All this almost exhausted Zhang Rou's energy.
Therefore, during the period when he first surrendered to Li Xia, although he did a lot, he was still essentially serving Li Xia in the same way as he served Kublai Khan.
"You will get used to it gradually." Li Xia said: "I hope that you will work hard to serve the country not for your own personal gain, but for your own ambition, to restore the Central Plains and restore the Han system. I believe you must have this thought in your heart. I also hope that you will
In the future, my sons will also be able to enclose the wolf and live in Xu, open up new territories and expand the territory. I hope that in the future, the history of Qing Dynasty will mention you, and mention what you have done for the inheritance of articles, for the lives of Heshuo, and for the rejuvenation of China. You will be remembered forever.
A hundred generations."
Zhang Rou was stunned and murmured: "I am ashamed, old minister." Li Xia said, "I am also very ashamed. I cannot give the Zhang family a Wei Zifu, but I hope that the Zhang family will give birth to Wei Qing and Huo Qubing. But this is what I promised to give you today.
The Zhang family will not be suspicious or connivant, and will give you the opportunity to make contributions, rather than just being a temporarily prominent relative."
"!"
At this point, no matter what Zhang Rou felt in her heart, at least on the surface she was deeply moved.
He propped himself up and sat up, gave a salute, and said solemnly: "I promise your Majesty that I will not fight in the future! I don't want to be a high-ranking official, I only want to be an honest and loyal minister of your Majesty."
"Then I will remember the Zhang family's promise.
"
An old man and a young man looked at each other and smiled.
Although a promise cannot guarantee everything, for Li Xia, he has warned everything that needs to be warned. If the Zhang family violates his bottom line in the future, it is just a matter of following the law, not to say that he did not predict what he said. To the Zhang family
It doesn’t matter if it’s more or less. In short, the general trend has been established, and the tide is rolling by. If you go with it, you will prosper, if you go against it, you will perish.
Zhang Rouze already knew very well what kind of person Li Xia was. She didn't need to guess the emperor's thoughts, she could clearly know how to let her descendants settle down and live in this new dynasty. This really made him feel at ease.
At least in his later years, the burden on him and the pressure on his heart will be much less.
~~
As soon as Li Xia left the tent, Zhang Wenjing came over to greet him. The two of them avoided the surrounding guards and talked in low voices.
"how's it going?"
"Don't worry, I didn't make your father faint." "Isn't this kind of thing very difficult?"
Li Xia thought for a while, shook his head and said, "Actually, it just seems troublesome. It doesn't matter if you tell me. Even if your father is angry, he will know that my personality is like this in the future."
This sentence was obviously a joke, so Zhang Wenjing laughed.
"Dad must be surprised that you are such an emperor, right?" "What kind of thing?"
"Well, always challenge the tacit truths, don't be afraid, don't avoid it." Zhang Wenjing held her chin and thought for a while, then said: "Whenever you encounter, face it directly, be brave and determined."
"I think you mean to say you have low emotional intelligence." "Emotional intelligence?"
The two chatted for a while, and Li Xia went to deal with military affairs, while Zhang Wenjing went into the tent to see Zhang Rou.
I saw that Zhang Rou had sat up and was in a daze, not knowing what she was thinking.
But my spirits improved a lot. "Isn't it possible that Dad still doesn't give up?"
"Your Majesty has told me frankly, how can I still not give up? At least, it is not something that my father's generation can worry about." Zhang Rou sighed, "My father is thinking about your majesty's promise not to be suspicious of the Zhang family.
It’s a natural thing, why?”
"Why do you feel so relaxed?" Zhang Wenjing blamed: "It's just because you were too nervous."
"More than ten years have passed, and I still can't see through His Majesty."
"Of course he won't be easily seen through." Zhang Wenjing sat down again, her tone as if she had returned to the carefree time more than ten years ago, "Dad, you haven't praised your daughter for her good taste."
"It would be great if I could live another ten years. Didn't your father praise you?" Zhang Rou smiled and stroked her beard and said, "You just praised me, didn't you?"
Zhang Wenjing shook her head and said, "That doesn't count. Let's praise again."
"Haha, okay, okay, my eldest sister has a sharp eye, a sharp eye."