Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 226 Prince
Zhaoyang Hall.

The hall was extremely quiet. There were eunuchs guarding every intersection. These eunuchs had their heads down and their faces were stern, without a trace of life on their faces.

Two servants were walking in the long corridor, one in front and one behind, leading a child of five or six years old.

The little doll was delicate and fair, just like a porcelain doll, and was a delight to look at.

He looked around, confusion written all over his young face.

I don't know how long I walked, but I finally arrived in front of the hall.

The old slave stopped and looked at the little boy. He squatted down and smiled gently, "Your Highness, we cannot accompany you in."

"When you see the Queen later, remember to bow. Do you remember the etiquette we taught you?"

The little kid was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "I still remember."

"Okay, great."

The old slave looked around furtively, took out a plum from his sleeve and handed it to him.

Prince Gao Wei picked up the plum and his eyes lit up, "So cool!"

"Your Highness, this is what I took out from the ice cellar. Please hide it in your sleeve. If it doesn't come out for a long time, eat it secretly in a place where no one is around. Don't starve yourself."

Gao Wei laughed and nodded heavily, "Thank you!"

The old servant laughed and then coaxed the prince into the hall.

The door of the hall was very high, with a soldier standing on each side.

The two soldiers were tall, and Gao Wei had to tilt his head high to see their faces.

The prince walked into the hall, and a eunuch took him inside again.

When I walked into the main hall, there were quite a few people inside.

Gao Zhan, looking tired, sat on the throne, and Queen Hu sat next to him.

Prince Gao Yan of Dongping, who was younger than the crown prince, sat next to his parents without any courtesy. There were servants in front and behind him, some holding new clothes, some carrying fruit plates, some waving fans, and some female officials holding cloth. There were more than ten people in total, all surrounding Gao Yan, serving this little boy of only three years old.

Gao Wei timidly walked up to his parents and bowed to greet them.

"My son, I pay my respects to Your Majesty."

"Your son greets the Queen."

Gao Zhan glanced at him, nodded, and continued to talk to Queen Hu. The two of them spoke in low voices and very quickly, as if they were arguing about something. Queen Hu wiped her tears from time to time, and the two of them were very busy.

Gao Yan was holding a small wooden man carved into the shape of a general. He was holding it in one hand and having a lot of fun playing with it.

Gao Wei stood there, watching him having fun, his face blank.

After standing there for an unknown amount of time, Gao Wei touched his stomach, quietly walked aside, took out a plum from his sleeve, and took a bite.

"what!!!!"

Gao Yan suddenly shouted.

When he called out like this, the whole hall fell silent in an instant. Gao Zhan looked at him. Ever since the birth of this prince, Gao Zhan had doted on him in every way, obeying him in everything and doting on him more than anyone else.

Gao Yan pointed at the plums in Gao Wei's hand.

"My brother has plums to eat in the palace, why don't I have any?!"

Gao Wei was stunned and looked at his father blankly.

Gao Zhan was furious, "Go and call old slave Zhang to me!!"

The next moment, a soldier called the old slave who had just given Gao Wei the plum to this place.

"His Majesty!!"

"I want to ask you, why did you only give the plums from the ice cellar to the crown prince? Why didn't you share them equally among the other princes?"

The old slave's eyes widened, "Your Majesty, I am the prince's personal attendant. Besides, how can the prince's standards be the same as those of the other princes?"

"How dare you! Are you refuting me?!"

"Someone come! Drag him away and beat him to death!!"

"Your Majesty! Spare my life!"

"His Majesty!!!"

The old slave was dragged out crying. The plum in Gao Wei's hand fell to the ground. He looked at the old slave being dragged away in surprise. Seeing him crying, he couldn't help crying too.

Gao Zhan was upset. He suddenly opened his collar and looked at the queen beside him irritably. "Every time I come here, it's like this! Why should I come to you again?"

He turned around and strode out.

Queen Hu just shed tears silently.

Seeing Gao Wei crying loudly, Queen Hu became even angrier, "How can you cry so much?!"

She picked up Gao Yan and turned away.

The servant pulled the crying Gao Yan out of the hall, sent him to the door, and left.

A bloodstain could be seen outside the door, a trail of blood, and a strong smell of blood. The two people who had brought him here were nowhere to be seen.

Gao Wei looked around in horror, his whole body trembling.

"Prince."

Suddenly someone spoke.

Gao Wei trembled all over and raised his head suddenly.

Then he saw a woman with elegant temperament and a smile on her face appeared in front of him. Her appearance was delicate, not inferior to the queen at all. She slowly squatted down and held the prince's hand.

"Sister Lu."

Gao Wei shouted.

Wet nurse Lu Lingxuan gently stroked Gao Wei's face, "Your Highness, let's go back."

"Sister, why don't my parents love me anymore?"

"Your Highness, the Queen loves you very much, how can you say that?"

"They killed my slaves."

Lu Lingxuan pursed her lips and said nothing, "That's because he refuted the emperor himself. It was his own fault. The emperor is supreme and cannot be refuted."

"Can I be the emperor?"

"When the prince grows up, he can do it naturally."

"So when will I grow up?"

Lu Lingxuan did not speak, but looked towards the hall in the distance. When Gao Yan was not born yet, the emperor and the empress were particularly fond of Gao Wei, but now the situation has changed.

If I don't do something, I'm afraid...
"Don't worry, Your Highness. When the time comes, Your Highness will grow up."

Gao Wei's eyes widened, the corners of his mouth trembled, and his expression was extremely strange. "When I grow up, can I be like my father? Supreme?"

"of course."

Gao Zhan returned to the new palace in anger, and was just about to vent his anger when He Shikai came hurriedly and brought some good news.

The two of them sat in the hall, and He Shikai smiled widely, "Your Majesty is truly amazing! You have planned everything!"

"Once King Pingyuan takes action, Gao Guiyan will be completely vulnerable!"

"There's no need for King Pingyuan to take action. King Dong'an has already conquered four cities in a row and is approaching Xindu! Gao Guiyan can't be stopped!"

Gao Zhan picked up the military intelligence report, glanced at it for a few seconds, and his annoyed thoughts disappeared and he laughed out loud.

"Yeah!"

"Hahaha, Gao Guiyan, you're such an idiot! You think you can stop my troops? Which of my elite soldiers can he stop?"

"That's right. Your Majesty has many brave generals under his command. How can such a coward stop them?"

He Shikai then took out another document and said, "Your Majesty, here is also a memorial sent by Liu Taozi."

When he heard the name, the smile on Gao Zhan's face disappeared.

With a stern face, he took the report and glanced through it, his eyes somewhat surprised, "He captured the three rebel garrisons?"

The three garrisons of Tianzhu, Xin'an and Niutou of the Pseudo-Zhou are the closest to the Great Qi. The three garrisons have strong defenses and support each other. Relying on their advantageous positions, they always absorb fleeing Qi people and then use them to cause sabotage. They use Qi people to control Qi, which is really disgusting. When Gao Yang was still alive, he angrily evaluated the three garrisons of the traitors. These three places seem to be useless, but they are very disgusting to the Great Qi.

Gao Zhan asked in surprise: "How did he do that?"

Previously, Liu Taozi had written to the emperor several times, saying that the enemy had begun to build fortresses and that the two sides had already started fighting, but Gao Zhan had not taken it too seriously. But now, all three forts had been captured, so it seemed that he was not just talking nonsense, and had they really started fighting? ?
However, these three garrisons are all fortified cities. How did he do it?

He Shikai said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, Liu Taozi is a very cruel person. I am afraid that he drove the soldiers to fight to the death and just captured these cities. He didn't care about the lives of the soldiers and only cared about his own reputation! Moreover, I think he deliberately passed the news of victory this time, and he also had ulterior motives!" "Oh?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your Majesty, think about it. You just defeated Gao Guiyan, and he wrote to you saying that he defeated the Zhou people. Isn't this showing off his military strength to you? This is clearly a threat to Your Majesty!!"

Gao Zhan looked at He Shikai dimly, "You mean, Liu Taozi in Wuchuan knew the news of the battle of Jizhou faster than I did?"

He Shikai immediately lost his words and said hesitantly: "In short, he has bad intentions, Your Majesty. He is not a famous general. How could he take down the three garrisons so quickly? It is possible that he has reached some conspiracy with Yang Zhong and deliberately deceived and defrauded him."

"Shi Kai, do you think I am stupid?"

He Shikai was so frightened that he fell to his knees, "Your Majesty, why do you say that?"

"Listen to what you said. Liu Taozi conspired with Yang Zhong? Why didn't you say he conspired with Wei Xiaokuan?"

"I know you don't like Liu Taozi, and I don't like him either. These people in the court are stupid. They always think Liu Taozi is a loyal minister. In fact, he has no loyalty at all. Otherwise, if Gao Yan valued him so much, why didn't he come to see him off when Gao Yan passed away?"

He Shikai felt that sometimes he really couldn't understand his own lord anymore.

Our lord seems particularly smart at times, and the decisions he makes are amazing, but the logic behind them is hard to understand.

For example, in the issue of equal distribution of land, after Gao Zhan took the nobles hostage and came to power, he did not dismiss Gao Yin or stop the policy as he had promised. Instead, he chose to continue pushing forward, even with greater force and more decisiveness than during the Gao Yan period. If the nobles dared to express their dissatisfaction, he would send the army to their doorstep.

But Gao Zhan explained that the reason he did so was because Gao Yin always advised him to quit drinking and asked him to go do something so that no one would bother him.

It's strange.

Gao Zhan continued, "Although I don't like him and I'm not afraid of him, I haven't done anything to him yet."

"First, most of the ministers are against it, and second, they are afraid that he will defect to the enemy."

"There is only one solution at the moment. First, we need to gradually weaken his power, so that he won't starve to death or eat his fill. Then we can attack the Pseudo-Zhou and make sure that the Pseudo-Zhou doesn't dare to send out troops easily. After that, we can attack Liu Taozi."

"You will have important responsibilities in the future, so you must not be so impatient."

He Shikai bowed again and said yes.

Gao Zhan raised his head suddenly, his eyes sparkling, "The equal distribution of land is very good, and it also recruits people from all over the world as soldiers."

"How can the manpower of Da Qi be compared with that of the other two thieves?"

"I can accomplish what my brothers couldn't do."

"When the farmland is in the hands of the people and we have more than 200,000 elite soldiers, do you think the Zhou people will dare to confront us?"

"Shi Kai, do you think I should stop drinking? I should first accomplish the great things in the world, and then enjoy myself?"

He Shikai looked at the emperor who suddenly perked up, a little surprised, but said calmly: "Since ancient times, which emperor has been immortal? They all turned into dust, Yao and Shun were like this, Jie and Zhou were also like this, what is the difference between them?"

"When Jie and Zhou were alive, they ate, drank and had fun, enjoying themselves. No one could compare to them. When Yao and Shun were alive, they worked hard all day and could not enjoy themselves until their death."

"In this case, wouldn't it be better for the emperor to enjoy himself while he is still young and strong, and enjoy himself in one day as much as in ten thousand years?"

Gao Zhan was stunned, "What you said makes sense!"

"Everyone is going to die, so why live so hard?"

He Shikai then laughed, "Your Majesty, this is exactly what I am talking about."

Gao Zhan stroked his beard again, "However, I can't really become a Jie or Zhou and end up being killed. Let's leave the state affairs to the ministers! I'll continue drinking!"

"only!!!"

While the two were talking, a eunuch came in and reported that Prince Gao Yan of Pingyang wanted to see him.

Gao Zhan happened to be looking for him for something, so he quickly let him in.

Gao Yan paid his respects to Gao Zhan and greeted He Shikai. He Shikai hurriedly returned the greeting and took the initiative to retreat outside the door.

There were two wise kings in the court, Gao Yan and Gao Yu.

The two brothers have completely different personalities.

Gao Xun was radical, strong-willed, and extremely talented.

Gao Yan is steady, kind and treats people very well.

Gao Yu was responsible for offending people, and Gao Yan was responsible for appeasing people. Of course, his appeasement was different from that of Gao Zhan and Shi Kai.

Gao Yan sat aside, panting, and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. My health is getting worse and worse. I have consulted Cui Jishu several times before, but there is no improvement."

Gao Zhan was stunned, not knowing what he remembered. After a while, he said, "Cui Jishu's medical skills are quite good. I remember that he treated me when I was sick when I was young. Brother, let him go to a place closer to serve as a governor. He should not travel far when he is old."

Gao Yan hurriedly saluted and said, "Your Majesty is kind and benevolent, and the world is lucky to have you."

Gao Zhan grinned, and He Shikai stood in the distance, but couldn't help frowning slightly.

"Brother, you came at the right time. I just happened to be looking for you for something."

"Your Majesty, how dare I let you call me brother?"

"Hahaha, there are no outsiders here, so why not? Brother, I listened to Zu Ting's slander in the past and replaced Hulu Xian with Gao Anagong as the governor of Shuozhou. As a result, Shuozhou was in chaos and foreign troops dared to enter Shuozhou."

"It seems that Zu Ting was arranged by someone with ulterior motives, just to make me make a mistake."

Gao Zhan looked at Gao Yan and said, "Brother, if I asked you to go to Shuozhou as the governor, would you feel wronged? If you feel wronged, I will send someone else."

Gao Yan was stunned. "How can I say that I am wronged for serving the country? Even if I am a county magistrate, as long as it is beneficial to the country, I have no complaints."

Gao Zhan was very touched and held his hand, "Brother, with a minister like you by my side, what do I have to worry about?"

Gao Zhan added: "But the situation in Shuozhou is really complicated. Although Gao Anagong is governing the area now, the people who are really doing the work there are the people sent by Liu Taozi. They kill people and burn people in Shuozhou, committing all kinds of evil. Border soldiers are looting everywhere, and the people are living in misery!"

"If you go there, you must find a way to get rid of those people in the border areas!"

"Da Qi has its own system. Even if Liu Taozi has no selfish motives, he cannot set such a precedent. He is not the only one in this town. If he sets such a precedent, will there be peace in the future?"

Gao Yan was silent for a moment, then nodded, "Your Majesty is right."

"After I go to Shuozhou, I will certainly find a way to convince General Anxi to take back the power of Shuozhou. Your Majesty, please don't worry."

The emperor and his minister conspired for a long time before Gao Zhan asked He Shikai to send the other party away.

After leaving the palace, Gao Yan did not return to his own residence, but went to his younger brother Gao Yin's residence first.

Gao Yu's mansion was the most humble among all the kings. He did not like pleasure and kept everything simple. When Gao Yan came to his house, Gao Yu was still in the study, excitedly discussing the issue of farmland with many clerks.

In Gao Zhan's eyes, the equal distribution of land was going quite smoothly, and he received good news every day.

It said that the arable land in a certain place was successfully distributed, and that the people there knelt on the ground and shouted "Long live the emperor".

But in Gao Yun's eyes, it was impossible to move forward.

When Gao Yan arrived, the scholars hurriedly left. Gao Yun breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly collapsed, feeling powerless.

Seeing his brother's exhausted face, Gao Yan felt distressed. In less than a year, Gao Yu looked much older, his face had lost its luster, and he looked ten years older than Gao Yan. He no longer had the vigor and radiance he once had.

"Things aren't going well?"

"Very ill."

Gao Yu pointed at the document in front of him and said, "It's not feasible. Officials who are doing things will not do anything that will harm themselves, and the same goes for the generals sent to suppress them."

"It's all fake. They pretended to grant land, pretended to recruit soldiers, pretended to have done everything."

"I sent people to check, but they all died of illness and there is no further news."

"I led the troops to investigate in person and discovered that it was a fraud, but no one admitted it and we couldn't kill them all."

"Brother, I..."

Gao Yan said softly: "Don't be anxious, haste makes waste."

"Among all the brothers, you have the highest talent. I don't know how to solve these problems, but I think I can definitely do it."

"Yan, I'm going to Shuozhou to serve as the governor."

"Provincial governor?"

Gao Yu frowned again, "You are asked to deal with General Liu?"

"Don't worry, I know what to do. But here, I won't be here to help you anymore, so you must be more restrained and don't refute His Majesty in front of the ministers, and don't talk about things that shouldn't be discussed."

"I'm not afraid of going to the border, I'm just worried about what's happening here."

"Brother, don't worry about me. It's a good thing for you to go to Shuozhou. It's better than dealing with those villains. Brother, there is one thing I want to trouble you with."

"You say it."

"I haven't personally seen the situation in the border areas, but they say it's going exceptionally smoothly. I'd like to ask you to help me see how they did it. If you see Liu Taozi, please tell him. If he's willing, I can let him come to the court to assist in the administration."

(End of this chapter)