"Have you finished talking with the county magistrate, Li Langjun?"
"Well, is this a defense change by Liu Bai?"
"Yes, what is this? It smells so good."
"Snake soup, will Liu Bai eat it?"
"Can I eat it?!"
"Of course you can."
"That's great! Thank you very much, Mr. Li!"
"You're welcome, just leave the plate and I'll come back to pick it up tomorrow... By the way, what do General Liu Bai think of my craftsmanship?"
"Of course there's nothing to say..."
Li Zhaocheng was quite satisfied after hearing Liu Jinsuo's praise.
Recalling that when his family suffered a disaster, he was adopted by Li Yong. At first, he always felt that there was something to be done in the care of others, so he often ran to the kitchen to help.
Later, Li Yong told him not to cook and to study hard, but Li Zhaocheng really liked cooking.
Along the way, he was thinking about what dish to cook tomorrow. When he returned home, he saw Li Yong still waiting in the hall.
"Father, I have met my second brother."
"What can you see?"
"It's confirmed that he suffers from apathy."
Li Yong asked: "Why do you assert it?"
Li Zhaocheng said without thinking: "Because there is only one possibility. My father has thought about it for a long time, is it possible that he can still deny his son?"
~~
Li Xia originally thought that he would be very busy after returning to Qingfu County.
More than 100,000 people need to be relocated from Xuzhou and need to open up wasteland and expand the city; Qingfu Army needs to expand and reorganize; Weining is building a city and needs liaison support...
He was indeed busy, but after a few days, he found that he was not as busy as expected.
Fang Yankai and Li Yong are fully capable of governing a county. After accepting Li Xia's plan, many things can be handled in an orderly manner. The Han family's father and son are also talented and become more and more comfortable in doing things.
Although Li Xia was busy, he had no excuse to avoid Li Yong.
He was not a shy person, so he still met with Li Yong.
"Recently, I have talked with Brother Zhaocheng several times, and I feel that there may be some misunderstandings between us." Li Xia was quite frank and said: "I don't want to give you wrong hopes and be disappointed in the end. To put it bluntly, I am not gaining or losing.
Soul disease. He is indeed not your son."
Li Yong looked directly at Li Xia, not avoiding his gaze, but avoiding the topic.
"Zhaocheng is nineteen this year, and he doesn't have a name yet, but you already have... Feiyu." Li Yong shook his head and said, "I wanted to give you the title 'Chengyu' when I was crowned, but I missed it."
"Feiyu is pretty good too. His name and surname are just code names."
Li Xia tapped the table lightly, considered it, and then said: "Before going to Dali, there were some things we didn't discuss clearly. When I came back this time, I heard that you did a lot... Thank you very much."
Li Yong waved his hand and said, "It's just a little effort."
The two were in awkward silence for a long time.
Li Xia didn't want to talk much, and finally asked: "What are your plans for the matter between the Li family and Zhao Yu?"
"Do you still remember this?"
"I don't remember it, I found it. But there are some specific details that I don't know yet." Li Xia said, "Although I am not your son, if you can trust me, you can tell me clearly and try my best to help you."
Li Yong leaned back on his chair and asked, "Why do you think of asking these questions now?"
Li Xia said calmly: "My way of solving the problem is different from yours. You want to take advantage of Wu Qian's power, but I think that in these troubled times, military power is king. If you stay in Qingfu, you should be safe."
"Then why are you asking again today?"
"I don't know what to talk about."
Li Yong thought for a while, didn't hide anything, and spoke directly.
"The eldest sister did make Huang Dingxi take abortion pills, which almost killed Zhao Yu. Who would have thought that Zhao Yu would become the emperor's heir, and the Li family would be in great trouble. Until five years ago, another case happened in Lin'an City... You
Do you remember 'Wei Zi Yao Huang'?"
Li Xia shook his head and said, "I don't remember."
Li Yong said: "The official's sister Si Junzi married Wei Jun and gave birth to a son named 'Wei Guansun'. Mrs. Ci Xian loved this grandson very much. One day, she was chatting with the official in the palace and wanted to meet him.
grandson.
However, when people with foreign surnames entered the harem, they had to wear waist badges, except for the children of the clan. The officials found it cumbersome, so they took the opportunity to name Wei Guansun "Zhao Mengguan" and called the official's adopted son into the palace to be a saint.
Not long after the incident, there were rumors about "Wei Prince" and "Wei Zi Yao Huang" in Lin'an, which meant that "Wei Zi" was of noble birth and his biological mother was a princess. "Yao Huang" alluded to Zhao Yu, whose biological mother was Huang.
He was born as a slave, and it is said that the official family intended to pass it on to his nephew."
At the end of his words, Li Yong added: "Just when the rumors were in full swing, Wei Guansun drowned in the Yaopu Pond in the Zhao Yurui Mansion."
Li Xia frowned.
He had been to Prince Rong's Mansion, and he had also passed by the Yaopu Pond.
At that time in Lin'an, if he hadn't been alert and lucky, he would have become a withered skeleton under the lotus pond.
Li Yong added: "At that time, Wu Qian was the right minister. He was shocked when he heard about this major case and implored the officials to investigate thoroughly. As a result, the officials only concluded that the child Wei Guansun had naughtily jumped into the pool and drowned, and hastily closed the case.
But Wu Qian has found out that on the day Wei Guansun drowned, he was swimming in the lotus pond with Zhao Fu. No matter who was the mastermind, Zhao Fu must have known about it. The heir of a country's emperor was not only mentally disabled, but also so cruel, so Wu Qian was determined not to allow him to inherit the throne.
.
Zhao Fu was protected by the officials, so Wu Qian had no choice but to find me through various investigations and asked me to testify that Zhao Fu was not the biological child of Zhao Yu.
Of."
Li Xia asked: "What happens next?"
"In April last year, when you beat Sun Tianji to death and was imprisoned, I realized that the loyal king's party was also investigating me, and disaster was imminent and inevitable.
It has been many years since I resigned and no one could protect me. I had no choice but to burn down my house, fake my death and escape. I contacted Wu Qian's people and agreed to his request, on the condition that he would protect you... including rescuing you from prison.
come out."
Li Xia was silent for a moment and asked, "Isn't Zhao Yu your son?"
Li Yong shook his head and said, "There is no personal relationship between me and Huang Dingxi."
"Then why would Wu Qian ask you to testify?"
"Huang Dingxi was my personal maid for a while, and then... she became the eldest sister's dowry maid."
"Is there another possibility?" Li Xia said: "Huang Dingxi is pregnant with the child of a member of the Li family. It was Zhao Yurui who tried to abort the child with medicine, but he was still born. Zhao Yurui looked at how many members of the official family
The princes died one after another, and they wanted to let Zhao Yu succeed him, so they silenced the Li family."
Li Yong shook his head again and said: "My uncle has always been careful in his work. If this were the case, he would never dare to ask Huang Dingxi to marry him. What's more, if Zhao Fu is not Zhao Yurui's biological child, how dare Zhao Yurui do such a bad thing for the Zhao family?"
"What are you going to do next?"
"Wu Qian is very determined to abolish the throne." Li Yong said: "He once said that if there is another fatuous emperor like Qin Zong, the consequences will be far worse than the disaster of Jingkang. Zhao Yu... will be further away than Qin Zong."
Li Xia didn't know much about what stupid things Song Qinzong had done during the Jingkang Incident, so he couldn't feel the deep fear in Wu Qian's words.
Li Yong patted his knees, looking a little confused, and said: "I have to be protected by Wu Qian to survive. This matter is inevitable. He is already seeking to regain his position. By then... he will be entrusted by others and die."
Let’s do it.”
Li Xia said: "I was not saved by Wu Qian."
"You were greatly favored by Mr. Meng Chuang in Lin'an, weren't you?"
"You actually knew?"
Li Yong nodded and sighed: "You and I must repay the kindness we receive from others; we must also repay the blood feud of my uncle's family. Zhao and Rui and his son forced me to come here, so I have no choice but to fight back."
Li Xia said: "If you go, you will definitely die."
Li Yong hesitated for a moment and said: "I can probably guess a little about what you are going to do now. Before Wu Qian returns to power, I will do my best to help you as much as I can. From now on, you can take good care of your eldest brother and aunt...
Regardless of whether you are my son or not, you can definitely do it."
"Maybe then, you won't necessarily need to do that."
Li Yong said: "If you are willing to listen to my advice, I will also say that what you did is really not what you should do."
"What did you see?"
"I don't know how far you want to go, but using national power to support private soldiers, how can I not see it?"
"It is clear?"
Li Yong said: "You and I are being persecuted by the Zhao clan. Fang Yankai and others don't know about this. They only think that you aspire to be the commander of Shu and I know about it."
With a probing tone, he asked again: "Do you want to support yourself with troops and use this to overthrow Zhao Yu?"
Li Xia didn't answer.
Li Yong asked: "Do you know Wu Xi?"
"I don't know."
"Seven of the famous generals who fought against the Jin Dynasty in the Gaozong Dynasty were later posthumously crowned kings: King Han Shizhong of Qi, King Liu Guangshi of Yan, King Xun Zhang Jun, King Yue Fei of Hubei, Wang Yang Yizhong, King Wu Jie of Fu, and King Wu Lin of Xin.
Among them, Wu Jie and Wu Lin were brothers. They ran Monk Yuan, Raofeng Pass, Xianren Pass and other places. They repeatedly defeated the Jin army, defended Qin Long, and blocked Bashu.
The grandson of Wu Lin was Wu Xi, who served as the deputy envoy to Xuanfu in Sichuan and also served as the envoy to Shaanxi and Hedong. In the third year of Kaixi, Wu Xi claimed to be the king of Shu, rebelled against the Song Dynasty and surrendered gold, and ceded gold to the four states of Rank, Cheng, He and Feng.
The country has Iron Mountain as its national boundary.
Only forty-one days after he became king, Wu Xi was killed by the army. The third generation of the Wu family made contributions to the western frontier, and their 80 years of merit have been wasted since then. Moreover, the imperial court increasingly distrusted the generals who led the troops in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and many parties held them hostage.
.”
"So today's officials don't trust Yu Jie at all? Are they afraid that Yu Jie will follow in Wu Xi's footsteps?"
Li Yong said: "Not only does it not trust Yu Jie, the court may not trust anyone who is in charge of Sichuan and Shu, even Pu Zezhi."
"Pu Shuai?"
"Anyone who is the commander-in-chief of Shu will be demoted if there is any slight disturbance. Pu Zezhi cannot be your backer. There will never be any private soldiers in Shu."
As Li Yong spoke, his expression became increasingly pessimistic, and he sighed: "In the future, if you are punished, you should flee to Dali. Don't you want to marry a Dali woman?"