Queen Han sat alone in the secret room on the east side of the hall, smelling the smell of corpses.
Suddenly hearing the sound of footsteps, the queen turned around suddenly and saw her maid Han Ju walking in carrying two baskets of ice cubes. The ice cubes were so heavy that the maid was so tired that she was grinding her teeth and sweating profusely.
"Thank you for your hard work, Ju'er."
"Oh, it's a blessing for me to serve the Queen. I don't dare to say it's hard work."
"Hey, you have followed me since childhood and have not enjoyed many blessings. On the contrary, I have to rely on you for every big event..."
As she spoke, the queen tightened her already shiny temples. Perhaps, this habit was left behind when she was in the cold palace.
Time makes people grow old. Even a woman as beautiful as Queen Han cannot withstand the ravages of time. She has just turned 40, showing an age beyond her years. She has white hair and deep crow's feet at the corners of her eyes.
.The bridge of her nose seemed to be transparent in the side light. Her nose bridge was high and thin, and her turbid eyes stared blankly at the corpse of Emperor Tiande in the secret room. The corpse had begun to stink, and she could not hide it from sight.
Already.
The emperor had passed away, and the mourning was kept secret. Very few people knew about it, and the queen couldn't mobilize a large force to transport a coffin into the Changqiu Palace, so she hid the emperor in a bed cabinet and used ice cubes to suppress it.
"Mom, just put the ice cubes in the bed cabinet and they will melt soon."
"What about that?"
"When I went to buy ice, I saw that some people put bedding in a small box, then wrapped the ice cubes in the bedding and sealed the lid of the box."
"Is there such a thing in the world? Bedding is supposed to keep you warm. If you put ice cubes in it, wouldn't it melt faster?" The queen frowned and thought for a while, then said: "I understand, bedding keeps warm as well as cold. Okay.
Well, then do it your way."
Hu Rong led the etiquette officers to visit the competition held in Qinghua Square. Queen Han and the maid Han Ju stuffed the emperor's stiff corpse into the bed cabinet. The emperor was too long to fit in the bed cabinet, so the queen asked the maid to stand on the emperor.
He stepped on the emperor's body and bent it. Then he poured ice cubes into the bed cabinet one by one.
With a bang, the lid of the bed cabinet was closed and locked. The queen leaned against the bed cabinet and took a few deep breaths.
Then she clasped her hand with exquisite armor, stood at the door, and looked towards the main hall. The eunuchs and maids in the main hall were all standing far away in the courtyard at this time. She walked to the door of the main hall and looked outside the hall, with eyes in her eyes.
With an expectant look.
…
Su Ping never thought of using martial arts to show off his dignity in front of others. As his old mentor said, warriors are as hard as steel, but easy to break.
Because of this consideration, Su Ping heard bursts of applause from the audience, but there was still no smile on Su Ping's face. He just politely bowed his hands to everyone, and then prepared to step down, not intending to continue fighting.
However, the Tang family's ceremony officer stopped Su Ping and asked him to continue the competition, saying that this was the second master's wish. At this time, the top expert in the Duke's palace, the old eunuch Tang Shun who usually hid in the inner courtyard, appeared.
His appearance relieved Su Ping from the siege. He only used four moves to knock the second Khitan warrior away. After the man fell, half of his body was numb and he could not get up.
It is worth mentioning that the reason why four moves were used was because Shun Neiyuan gave the man three moves.
It can also be said that Jun Neiyuan knocked the samurai to the ground with one move.
The old eunuch's clean moves and his hidden aura are admirable. Moreover, he showed mercy. If instead of poking the man's acupuncture points with his fingers, he sent out a sharp sword energy to penetrate the man, the Khitan warrior might have
He died on the spot.
At this time, the Khitan prince who was sitting on the terrace had a gloomy face, and the proud smile from before was completely gone. Tangning, on the other hand, maintained a polite smile, but now his smile looked a little malicious.
Of course, this seems to be a bad intention in the eyes of the Khitan prince. The Minister of War is in a good mood at this time, but he does not show it on his face deliberately, and his smile is the smile he had from the beginning. Only when facing Su Ping
, disappeared briefly for a while.
Seeing the superb martial arts in Shunneryuan, the Seventh Khitan Prince Yelu Hongji said something in the ears of the Sixth Prince Yelvsong. Although Yelvsong was a little reluctant, he still nodded.
Immediately, Yelu Hongji stood up, imitating Han etiquette, and hugged Tang Ning and Lao Diao Si Hu Rong: "My brother has seen the masters of Daliang. They are really good. We are here today just to make friends with martial arts, and there is no guarantee."
We have to distinguish the meaning of high and low. And what I said before, if the Tang family loses, Princess Changxia will be allowed to marry my sixth brother, that is just a joke played by the queen of your country on us, and we did not take it seriously.
"
Hearing this, Tangning kept her usual smile: "The seventh prince means..."
Yelu Hongji smiled: "In my opinion, let's just call it a day. There is no winner today."
Tangning laughed and said, "Wonderful, so wonderful."
After the competition was over, the Tang family arranged a grand reception, but the two Khitan princes refused. They had stayed in Luoyang for more than ten days, completed their mission, and were preparing to return home with the New Year coins.
In previous years, the Liang Dynasty took the initiative to send the coins to the Liao Kingdom, but this year was different. The Liang Dynasty went to war with the Sangla people and was deeply mired in quagmire. The national treasury was in deficit, so they did not send money. The two Khitan princes came, which can be said to be forcing them.
The debt can also be said to be a declaration of war. If the Liang Dynasty does not pay, our cavalry will rush out of Yanyun and drink from the Yellow River.
"Report to the Marquis that all the cattle and sheep have been slaughtered, and all the vegetables and wine have been..."
"I see."
The envoy left, as did the courtesy officers sent by the imperial court. Tang Ning stopped pretending, and her face became ashen as water: "Now that we are ready, there is no need to withdraw. Let's have a banquet in the name of 'rewarding the warriors'."
It is a sin for the common people to kill cows, but no one cares about the killing of cows by the clan, not to mention that this cocktail party is to entertain state guests.
Then the steward asked who to invite? Tang Ning said that only relatives within the three blessings were entertained. He also sent out invitations and invited Prince Fu, Prince Xian, Prince Rui, and Prince Feng to the banquet. Then he went to invite Meng Qi, the third son of the Meng family, and
Ximen Zaipei, the sixth son of the Ximen family, summoned him.
But after the invitations were sent out, none of the four princes came. It wasn't that the princes didn't give Tangning face, but I heard that the four of them had already left the city and went to the eight passes of Luoyang. Each of the eight passes of Luoyang has 10,000 troops stationed there.
Army A, I really don’t know why they all suddenly went to join the army.
Tang Ning seemed to smell a hint of unrest, but he didn't say anything. He just drank and chatted with Meng Qi and Ximen Zaipei, talking about today's martial arts competition and talking about it with great interest.
The nobles sat in the main hall, while the warriors' seats were arranged in the outer room. Among the six injured, only Gao Zhun came to the banquet, because he was holding his breath and protecting his heart, and was not seriously injured.
The other five people are all recuperating at home, and they don't have the time to have a drink. Although they came to the banquet, today's defeat still makes Gao Zhun feel that he has lost all face, and he can't hold his head up.
Swordsman Mi Qing was accompanying Tang Ning, the Marquis of Wuding, while Gao Zhun sat alone at the table, drinking wine. Today's first contributor, Shun Neiyuan, did not come to the reception. Not long after, Gao Zhun saw a young man leaving.
Come in. The man is wearing a blue satin robe, a black cloak over his shoulders, and a black scarf on his head. He is followed only by a maid in a small flower coat.
By the way, this young master of the Su family is kind-faced, friendly to others, and even greets the slaves at the door. Just this action made Gao Zhun quite fond of him.
When Su Ping saw Gao Zhun, they sang to each other and asked each other to sit down. At aristocratic banquets, only one person and a few people shared the meal. Looking at the table of wine and meat, Su Ping smiled, patted the side and asked Xiao Tao to sit down.
eat.
Xiao Tao said that if the slave really sat down to eat, he would probably be beaten to death by the ceremony officer.
"so serious?"
"My uncle doesn't know how strict the "Tang Family Laws" are. You must not exceed the rules."
Su Ping could tell that the little maid was a glutton. She couldn't take her eyes away from a piece of fat meat. What a coincidence, Su Ping didn't like fat meat, so she sliced off the fat meat with a knife and cut it into mahjong pieces.
, put it on a small plate, and handed it to Xiaotao who was standing behind her. Let her eat standing.
The little maid happily took it away, glanced around and quickly grabbed a few mouthfuls of food, then put the plate down and stood up properly again. Su Ping ate and drank in silence, but felt the little maid's hand touch the table from time to time, "Stealing
"Take a piece of fat meat that has been given to her, put it in your mouth, and chew it carefully.
None of this escaped Gao Zhun's eyes. Gao Zhun raised his glass and said, "Guan Gu is a sweetheart. A certain Gao Zhun, here's a drink to you."
Su Ping immediately raised his glass and drank with respect.
In fact, there were not many men at this banquet, but there were many women. Because most of the relatives within the three blessings of the Duke's Mansion were serving in the Shence Army and were fighting in the Longyou area at this time, not in Luoyang.
The female family members were not in the same room as the male guests, but in the inner house of the Marquis Mansion. Under the leadership of the Marquise, they recited poems, composed poems, sang drinking orders, played and ate wine. There was that clumsy woman who always made mistakes and was already drunk.
Got to be half drunk.
Miss Six did not come to the reception, but she did not stop Su Ping from having a drink. The boy from the Marquis Mansion came to deliver a message, so Su Ping came with Xiao Tao and got acquainted with Gao Zhun. Su Ping said, if not
If he gave up using the sword, the Khitan warrior would never be a match for Brother Gao. Hearing this, Gao Zhun burst into tears and said that Su Ping was an expert.
When it got dark, Su Ping said goodbye to Gao Zhun and left the table leisurely. He took Xiao Tao and the pieces of meat wrapped in yellow paper home. He came to the concierge and gave a package of meat to Feng Die, the maid in red shirt. Feng Die
She put it down shyly and smiled sweetly.
Walking to the second courtyard, he wanted to give the other two packs of meat to Tang Wan and Tang Ting, but he was worried that Miss Six would know about it, because Xiao Tao said that nobles did not take leftovers with them when they left the banquet. If Miss Six knew about this, it would be very serious.
He couldn't do it. But Su Ping still cut up the beef and brought it back, seemingly indifferent to the "Tang Family Law".
It was raining. Su Ping and Zhu Tao walked quickly to the backyard when they suddenly heard a "pop" coming from Qinxiang Xiaozhu...