Still waiting for Zhaoyang

Chapter 5 Kanai Indus Autumn Leaves Yellow (2)
three

On the first day of the Double Ninth Festival, Xu's wives were ordered to enter the palace to meet their queen mother.

In Chengfu Palace, a whole family surrounded the Empress Dowager Xu in the upper seat like stars.On the right is the emperor, and on the left is the empress Wang.

Empress Dowager Xu was chatting with her natal sisters, covering her mouth and laughing from time to time.

On the other hand, Shang Rui was teasing the crickets with his eldest son Ran Jun ecstatically. Suddenly, the father and son encountered something and laughed at the same time.

Empress Dowager Xu couldn't help looking at them, and said cheerfully: "My son is so old, I still look like a child king." Then she turned around and raised her hand to hold the queen on the other side, "It's also thanks to you for seeing Ran Jun. It took a lot of heart to do it yourself."

"Actually," Wang Xiaoxiang continued after pondering the Empress Dowager's expression for a while, "Actually, according to Erchen, we should take Jun'er's mother out of the palace..."

Before she could finish speaking, Empress Dowager Xu's complexion had already collapsed: "A woman who doesn't keep her duty and only flatters the master is also worthy to come to the palace?"

The originally harmonious atmosphere in the hall suddenly froze, and Shang Rui gently waved someone to take the child and the grasshopper cage out together.

He didn't even remember the name of Ran Jun's biological mother, or he never asked her at all.It was just the maid who was pulled into the bed by him on a night of hangover in the Shunzhou Palace.

Thinking of this, Shang Rui didn't care about other people's eyes, half raised the corner of his mouth, and suddenly smiled.It can be seen that he is indeed a licentious, extravagant and licentious king.

At some point, the Empress Dowager in the room began to chat and joke with other people in a pleasant manner again. The Empress faltered in these topics, but would glance at her husband from time to time.Shang Rui stared blankly at the hazy sky outside the window.Suddenly, a eunuch from the Kangning Palace said that Wang Qing was asking for an audience in the Qiantai Palace, so Shang Rui happily got up and resigned from his mother.

The man who was waiting for Shang Rui in the study was wearing a third-rank Xuanhu official uniform, white and fat, with a benevolent face.This person is Wang Qing, who works in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He is the eldest son of Prime Minister Wang Ji and the elder brother of Queen Wang Xiaoxiang.

Wang Qing brought a list of official job changes at the end of the year.

Shang Rui went back and forth this time, and watched for no less than half an hour. Wang Qing kept his head buried and did not speak. There seemed to be a strange atmosphere floating in the imperial study.

"Heh—" Shang Rui's laughter finally broke the dullness.He laughed out as soon as he closed the book, "Everything else is correct, but Hong Wu is not allowed to go to the Southern Region. I like Hong Wu, so I have to keep him."

Wang Qingdao: "General Hong is a rare general in our dynasty, I'm afraid it will be placed in the capital..."

Shang Rui glanced at him with a smile: "I'm afraid of being inferior? My brother-in-law thinks who stays by my side and is not inferior?"

Wang Qing bowed his head: "I am terrified."

Shang Rui pondered for a while, opened the booklet and took a pen to change the name: "Let Xu Yang go. He is uncle's son. When you show the purpose to the Queen Mother, tell her my original words."

"However, the Xu family is the only big family, and we are afraid that there will be criticism from the court..."

"You wait a few more days and let the queen mother see, she will have a choice."

What if the Empress Dowager is only willing to give up, Wang Qing pondered.

Xu Jingye deterred the Wusun Kingdom in the Western Regions, Li Bingli guarded the barbarian tribes in the Southern Regions, and the Imperial Forest Army was under Hongwu's banner.

Now Li Bingli suddenly wants to retire and return home.

If the Empress Dowager only chooses and refuses to give up, then in this world...

Wang Qing couldn't help wiping the cold sweat off his forehead.When resigning and leaving the house, he counted his days, luckily it was autumn hunting again, the emperor could breathe, maybe the empress dowager kept asking him to take care of some irrelevant government affairs in the court, he really got something wrong.

four

In mid-October, as in previous years, the royal family hunted in Changyang Garden.Since the previous Emperor Sejong, there has been an ethos of advocating martial arts throughout the country, and the princes and sons have learned both civil and military skills since childhood.

The palace started preparations half a month in advance.

Changyangwon is located in the south of Gyeonggi, with a flat terrain. It was built by the order of the founding emperor Taizu. It was built so that future generations would not give up their military career.

Every year at this time, Shang Rui will be in high spirits.

The Xu family are all military generals, I don't know if they have inherited from their mother's family, they have an active temperament, when they were princes, they were often punished in the Imperial College for this.Besides, he used to be the youngest among the nine sons of the first emperor, and he had no other intentions when he was young. His biggest dream was to fight the frontier fortress with his grandfather, shoot arrows on horseback, and spill blood on the battlefield. He always thought that was the most heroic of a man. way of living.

At night, when I arrived at Changyang Garden, where Yujia camped, the campfire burned half of the night sky red, don't talk about wolves and beasts, I'm afraid even a bird will be driven away several miles away, it is very boring.

Thinking of this, the corners of Shang Rui's mouth rose into a smirk, and he also has ways to deal with them.Screened off all the maids and eunuchs, pretended to rest and go to bed, and then changed into the Royal Forest Army outfit that Hong Wu brought in.

"Your Majesty, I think it's still not right." Hong Wu had a straightforward personality, and he didn't keep it in his heart, he just said whatever came to his mind.

"Aren't you the number one warrior in my court? What are you afraid of?" Shang Rui put on his clothes while talking. Although the armor of an ordinary soldier is not cumbersome, it is enough for him to work for a long time. He wanted Hong Wu to help, but he looked at it. After looking at his thick black hands holding the saber, he still gave up.

Hong Wu shook his head hastily: "I'm not afraid, I'm just afraid..."

Shang Rui held back his smile, and said sullenly: "Why is a big man so condescending, are you afraid or not?"

"For the sake of the emperor, I will not be afraid of mountains of swords and seas of fire."

"It's all right, as long as you go out for a stroll with me, and you're not going to die, let's go." After finishing speaking, Shang Rui picked up his helmet and patted Hong Wu on the shoulder, letting him go first, while he himself followed.

The soldiers all recognized Hong Wu, only when he came out of the emperor's main tent with his subordinates for a routine inspection. The sharp-eyed people saw the black longbow carved with dragons on the back of the man walking behind Hong Wu, Slightly surprised.Just when he was about to reach the gate of the encirclement camp, when he sent people out to lead the horses, Xu Jingye suddenly sent people to look for Hong Wu to go back, and wanted to discuss with him the route of the royal hunting hunt tomorrow.

"I..." Hong Wu hesitated how to answer the other party.

Shang Rui looked like he had nothing to do with himself, and said with a smile: "My lord, the military order is like a mountain, so you can go at ease, there are... uh, there are subordinates here."

Hong Wu looked at him and murmured in his heart: I dare not go because of you.

Seeing Hong Wu's appearance that he would rather die than let him go, Shang Rui frowned and glared at him, silently saying two words "Go quickly".Shang Rui was a little impatient, if Xu Jingye noticed something strange and came to invite Hong Wu himself, would he still be able to slip away?
Hong Wu had nothing to do with him, he stomped his foot helplessly and said, "I'll be right back, you must wait for me." He had to leave with someone.

Seeing them going away, Shang Rui originally wanted to run away, but then he thought again, if Hong Wu really couldn't find him when he came back, with his nature, he might tie himself up and run back to the Queen Mother overnight to plead guilty, and it was even possible He drew his sword and wiped his neck on the spot.

So he had no choice but to take off the bow on his back, throw it aside, and fell on the haystack with his arms pillowed on the back of his head.Not far away, the soldiers who had just been laid off sat together, drinking around the fire to resist the cold spring night, teasing each other while drinking, and laughing from time to time.

"Hey!" One of them turned around and saw Shang Rui sitting here alone, staring at them in a daze, and gestured for him to pass.

Shang Rui froze, and pointed to himself: "Me?" After he was sure, he walked over slowly, and the man threw his hand and threw him a crude leather wine bag.

"Are you new here? I saw you with Mr. Hong just now. Why are you staying alone and not having fun with everyone?"

Shang Rui smiled, sat on the ground with them, pulled out the wooden cork and poured the wine into his mouth with his head raised.

This is a burnt knife that he has never tasted before. It is spicy and inferior, and after entering his throat, there is an unexpected sweet taste in his mouth.

The spilled wine flowed down Shang Rui's neck into the skirt of his clothes, and it got wet. It was a bit too cool to mix with the night wind, but he was very happy in his heart.

"What's your name?" the man asked.

Shang Rui glanced at the burning wood next to him, and replied, "Chai Wei."

The man pointed to himself: "My name is Yao Chuang."

The person on the left said, "My name is He Chuyi."

Then the others introduced themselves concisely one by one.

"Tian Taboo."

"King."

"Golden wealth."

……

After a dozen or so people finished speaking, Shang Rui nodded, listening carefully while savoring the taste of wine in his mouth.

Yao Chuang smiled and said: "You are new here, there are too many people at once, take your time, and you will recognize them all in a few days."

Shang Rui took another sip of wine and smiled slightly: "Your name is Yao Chuang, the little brother next to you with his sleeves is called He Chuyi, and the one who adds firewood is called Wang Yuan, and the one with the most festive name is you, Jin Fugui... "He repeated the names of more than a dozen of them one by one without haste, without missing a single word.

Everyone was a little surprised.

"Have you ever read a book?" Yao Chuang asked.

"Yeah." Shang Rui took a sip of wine.

Li Jia's eyes widened: "Damn—this guy who has read books is really smart."

Everyone roared with laughter.

Tian Taboo inadvertently saw Shang Rui's bow casually placed by his side, and asked, "How about it?"

Shang Rui tilted his head: "It's probably okay."

Every time he hunts and draws his bow, he will inevitably be praised to the sky by the group of people behind him, and he knows these tricks of flattery in his heart.However, since he was born in the mother's womb, he didn't know what humility is, and now he said "probably okay", to others, he seemed quite proud and conceited.

Little did he know that this was the most humble word in his life.

The bearded Li Jia was the most dissatisfied: "Our second brother Yao's riding and shooting are not bad, why don't you two compete."

Yao Chuang kept his mouth shut, he was not familiar with each other, and he was afraid of hurting his friendship.

Shang Rui's eyes lit up, and he replied, "Okay."

"How do you compare?" Yao Chuang asked.

At this moment, not far away, there was a crisp bird cry that sounded like a baby crying, which was the signal before the blood magpie preyed.

Shang Rui suddenly came up with a good idea, raised the corners of his lips, raised his eyebrows and said, "Since you are both good at riding and shooting, let's try riding and shooting in the opposite forest. Only shoot blood, and the first one wins." Since Hong Wu didn't If you tell him to go far away, it's okay to wander around.

The blood magpie is a unique bird in Dongyuan, and it only feeds on the venomous black snakes in the grass in this area.It usually appears at night, so it has excellent eyesight, and it will fly back to the sky quickly when it encounters wind and grass. It flies so fast that it is difficult for ordinary people to catch and shoot.

Shang Rui came up with such a topic, one is to compare eyesight, now there is no moonlight and stars in the night sky, it may be difficult to distinguish east, west, north and south in the dark woods, let alone looking for a dark red bird; the other is The blood magpie is extremely smart in horse racing, and once it senses danger, it will quickly fly into the air. If you want to ride a sturdy horse in this dense forest to chase something the size of an egg, it will be fun to think about it.

Yao Chuang is also a victorious person. Don't say that among this group of brothers, it is rare to meet archers who can surpass the right in the entire military camp. He also became interested and added with a smile: "Whoever drives the horse first Lin whoever loses."

"Okay!" Shang Rui agreed, took the reins from them and jumped on the horse.Holding the bow in his right hand, he remembered something, pulled out all the sharp arrows in the quiver behind him and threw them on the ground, leaving only one, looked at Yao Chuang provocatively, and said, "One hit will surely hit." After speaking, he rode out to camp.

Shang Rui went first, and when the horse arrived at the gate of the camp, there was naturally someone blocking the drive.Shang Rui's eyes froze, he squinted at the guard, and shouted: "Get out of the way!" He didn't even slow down, and the frightened man subconsciously turned sideways to give way in a panic.

Yao Chuang followed immediately.

The two horses galloped like lightning into the dark forest.Sensing the movement in the forest, the blood magpie croaked in the grass, spread its wings hastily, and scattered in all directions.It's a pity that in the panic, two blood sparrows flew rapidly between the tree trunks because the dense and intertwined branches and leaves in the forest couldn't find a gap to soar into the sky.

The two drove side by side, with their waists bent, shuttling between the trees.

The branches and leaves are too dense, and from time to time a few branches grow very low. When people and horses pass by quickly, they cannot withstand the impact and break off.

The two blood magpies quickly shuttled left and right.

Suddenly, one of them finally found an opportunity, pierced through the branches and leaves, and escaped to the sky by luck.

Only one left.

Because there was only one chance to shoot the arrow, neither of them dared to shoot it rashly, seeing that it was going to find the exit and jump into the sky.If you wait for it to succeed, it will be difficult to get it.

At this time, Shang Rui no longer hesitated, let go of the rein, just clamped the horse's belly with his legs, and pulled out the arrow from the quiver behind his backhand.

Just as he straightened his waist, he made a "chuck" when a tree branch slashed across his face. As if he didn't realize it, he settled on the horse's back, his back straight like a tree, and he opened his bow and waited calmly. opportunity.

At that moment, he seized the opportunity, narrowed his eyes, let go of his fingers, and let go of the arrow.

At the same time, a smug smile formed on the corner of his mouth.

He thought he must have won.

(End of this chapter)