Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 1091: Snow and Wind Always Welcome (Part )
The battle between Liang and Mang officially came to an end. Before leaving, Xu Xiao left his two righteous sons, Yuan Zuozong and Chu Lushan, to guard the three states of Beimang. The next step was for Beiliang to select talents from various states to go and govern the newly conquered lands.

Despite all the complicated matters, Xu Fengnian still insisted on going to Hulukou and led the Beiliang civil and military officials to welcome back the King of Beiliang.

After meeting Xu Fengnian, Xu Xiao temporarily built a magnificent martial arts arena at Hulukou.

Xu Longxiang beat the drum, and the sound of the drum was like thunder, and Beiliang rolled away.

Xu Xiao and his son Xu Fengnian came on stage to review the 100,000 infantry and cavalry of Beiliang.

Witnessed by many civil and military officials of Beiliang and a hundred thousand infantry and cavalry, Xu Fengnian, wearing a white dragon robe, waited for the stage. From then on, the new and old Kings of Liang took over.

The Northern Liang cavalry is the best in the world.

The sound of Northern Liang drums was heard throughout the world.

Beiliang has a new king, Xu Fengnian.

This Beiliang Grand Review was not only to celebrate Liang Mang's great victory, but also to celebrate the succession of the new king of Beiliang.

After two major battles between Liuzhou and Hulukou, and the subsequent policies of annexing Liuzhou and the Western Regions, and providing relief to Beiliang, etc.

The abilities of the new King of Beiliang were fully demonstrated, and all the civil and military officials no longer had any doubts about whether the Crown Prince could take over Beiliang.

At Hulu Pass, 100,000 Beiliang soldiers drew their swords together, and Xu Fengnian became the undisputed and legitimate King of Beiliang.

The change of king of Beiliang was of course seriously inconsistent with Liyang's vassal system.

But now most of his energy is tied up in Liyang in the south, so how could he dare to say no?

If you disagree, there are 500,000 Beiliang troops to reason with Li Yang.

The old and the new took over, and the old King of Liang Xu Xiao and the new King of Liang Xu Fengnian returned to Qingliang Mountain together.

Xu Fengnian successfully inherited the throne and became the King of Northern Liang.

When the news reached Beiliang, not only Liangzhou, but Youzhou and Lingzhou also decorated with lanterns and colors, almost like a madness. The momentum was even greater than the lantern fair during the Lantern Festival, in order to please the new king. Especially those powerful families, they were secretly competing to see who had the bigger and more lanterns, as if whoever dared to hang less would be reported the next day and then dragged out and beheaded.

Inside the Qingliangshan Palace, the new King of Beiliang accompanied the general for a walk.

From the first year of Xiangfu to now, Xu Xiao has been fighting outside for more than a year, but he looks very good and energetic.

After the father and son came to a tomb that the outside world said was "with multiple gates and rows of spears taller than those of the kings of the vassal states", Xu Xiao sat sideways in front of the tombstone.

There are very few ancient trees in the mausoleum. It is rumored that this is because the sword energy of the mother of the female sword fairy was too strong. Even after her death, the majestic aura of the female sword fairy still remained. Therefore, there are only a few ancient trees left in the princess' mausoleum, which was originally full of ancient trees.

Xu Xiao closed his eyes, listening to the familiar little tune, tapping his hand leisurely on his knee.

After the ballad ended, the father and son walked out of the mausoleum in silence again. Xu Xiao suddenly said, "Nian'er, you can let Huang Man'er go home."

Xu Fengnian bit his lip, stopped, then quickly caught up and nodded.

"Also, it's time for you to know Tianjiao's true identity." Xu Xiao whispered softly in Xu Fengnian's ear.

After hearing this, Xu Fengnian was speechless for a long time.

At night, Xu Xiao, the King of Northern Liang and a butcher in the Spring and Autumn Period, died suddenly in the palace in Qingliang Mountain.

The entire city of Liangzhou was dressed in white. Not a single sound of firecrackers or bells or drums could be heard. Only white lanterns were hung and all the couplets were white.

Facing the tens of thousands of Liangzhou people on the main road in the city, he bowed once and kowtowed three times, then bowed three times and kowtowed nine times.

When the news reached Liyang Tai'an City, countless people applauded and cheered, formed groups, went in and out of restaurants, got drunk, and many people had to be carried home.

According to the vassal laws of the Liyang Dynasty, when a vassal king died, the crown prince had to report the death to the court and clan office in the capital at an urgent speed of eight hundred miles.

Xu Xiao was a king of a different surname, so naturally he would not be under the jurisdiction of the clan affairs office like the other princes of Liyang.

But they still had to report to the Ministry of Rites as per the rules. The Ministry of Rites of the Liyang Dynasty waited and waited, but could not get the report from the Prince of Beiliang.

Zhao Zhuan, the Emperor of Liyang, did not care about it. Xu Xiao's death was a relief for him.

There have been rumors that when the late emperor was alive, he once said that Xu Xiao had lived too long.
He often complained about why the old emperor took him away when he left.

It wouldn't be that difficult for Li Yang to dismember Beiliang.

Now, Xu Xiao is finally dead.

Li Yang now wants to give the final verdict on this butcher, and this matter should be handed over to the Ministry of Rites for handling.

The Minister of Rites, Lu Daolin, feigned illness and completely abandoned the affairs of the Ministry of Rites. The Ministry of Rites was leaderless, and the two third-rank vice ministers, left and right, had different ideas and were unwilling to work together, so they blamed each other.

The matter naturally fell to the head of Jiang Yongle, who was one rank lower in rank and was in charge of the Ministry of Rites, ancestral temples and posthumous titles.

Although the posthumous title is just two simple words, it is divided into two systems, namely civil and military posthumous titles, and there are many intricacies involved.

It not only has to cover a person's life's merits and demerits, but also has to cater to the wishes of His Majesty.

All civil officials pursue "civil integrity" and all military officials pursue "military loyalty".

Take "Wenhuai", the young master of the Song family, and "Wengong", the young master of Lu Feichi, as examples.

The word "Huai" in the former is taken from the meaning of "praising someone's goodness", which is in line with the merits of Mr. Song Xiao, who was famous for his monthly reviews. The word "Gong" in the latter is taken from the meaning of "offering".

The posthumous title of the old King of Beiliang really troubled Lord Jiang.

On one side is the imperial court, and on the other side is Beiliang. If he offends either side, it will be enough to make him lose all hope of promotion in the court for the rest of his life.

As early as the first day when Jiang Yongle was appointed, the Left Vice Minister of Rites, who was from Zhang Lu, commented on the character "Dai" with a stern face. Jiang Yongle's lips trembled at that time. Dai is the second to last character among the 18 characters in Wufeng, and its general meaning is "no merit and no fault."

The Right Vice Minister Pan Chunjian even lightly said the word "Yang", which was already a bad posthumous name.

There was no such thing as a neutral posthumous title in Li Yang, and he rarely gave his ministers bad posthumous titles. Most of them were beautiful posthumous titles, just of different levels.

In the three days given by Li Yang, Jiang Yongle almost tore through the "Book of Posthumous Titles" and lost a lot of hair due to worry.

Finally, Lord Jiang, who resigned himself to his fate, used tea and copper coins to solve the problem and gave the word "Li".

Posthumous title: He made great contributions to the country and slaughtered innocent people.

At court the next day, all the civil and military officials thought that Xu Xiao had a bad posthumous title.

Among them, Jin Lanting, who was recommended to the court by Beiliang, danced the most enthusiastically and believed that Xu Xiao should be given the posthumous title of "Kang".

Even among the evil posthumous names, the word "Kang" is ranked very low.

The posthumous title means disobedience and rebellion, which is almost equivalent to defining Xu Xiao as a traitor of the Liyang Dynasty.

Yan Jiexi, a former minister of Beiliang and now a royal relative, supported it on the spot.

Some even think that the character should be "Yang".

Only Yao Baifeng, the master of Neo-Confucianism and the left chief minister of the government, believed that Xu Xiao had made an indelible contribution to the dynasty and no one could match him.

As a posthumous title that matches his military achievements, either "Yi Lie" or "Yi Lie" can be used, or "Huan" which means "martial, righteous, settled and pacified".

However, under the joint attack of the three palace grand secretaries and several bigwigs of the Censorate who had discussed it long ago, Yao Baifeng was finally so angry that his face turned pale and he was defeated.

In the end, it was the emperor who made the final decision and named Xu Xiao's posthumous title "Wu Li", which means that his merits and demerits offset each other.

(End of this chapter)