Chapter 290: The Emperor's Concerns

After all, Chunjia was Chunjia, and the pain caused by the suspected cause of smallpox, the Empress Dowager Yuan, only made him hesitate for a long time, then he calmed down and thought about Uncle Zhaowu's coming to Beijing.

To be honest, he was satisfied with Gu Fangshu's return.

However, considering the various actions taken by the commander of the Dingbei Army after leaving the fortress, he couldn't help feeling suspicious.

Originally, Gu Fangshu hadn't returned to the court for many years, and when he came back under the imperial edict, he should go in for an audience immediately.

The monarchs and ministers communicated face to face.

Now because of the smallpox in Miyagi, the front and back palaces are closed, and the emperor and ministers can't see each other for the time being.

Therefore, Chunjia sent someone to visit Uncle Zhaowu's mansion, and told the waiter to carefully observe the behavior of Gu Fangshu and the Gu family, and report to himself in detail after returning.

The servant went away with the reward, and when he came back, he said to Chunjia: "Returning to Your Majesty, Uncle Zhaowu's beard and hair are already grey, but his eyes are bright and his eyes are bright. His family is prosperous and has a certain degree of advancement and retreat. Only those below Uncle Zhaowu, I haven't seen any outstanding talents."

The emperor smiled lightly and said, "How long have you been sitting here, do you know if there are any outstanding disciples?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, this is not a slave-servant talking nonsense." The servant said coyly, "Everyone in the imperial capital knows that the young children of the Gu family are really not outstanding. When the slave-servant went, the Gu family knelt up and down to listen to the order, and looked at it to describe his demeanor. It’s really a bit worse than other children.”

"Go down." Chunjia listened, noncommittal, asked him some details, and asked him to step down, but called Deng Chengzhai for an audience.

The courtiers who were called into the palace at such a time were of course risky, but at the same time it also proved Deng Chengzhai's great favor.

So after receiving the news, he didn't hesitate at all, and directly followed the messenger into the palace.

"Yueting, what do you think I should do with Mrs. Gu?" When he entered the imperial study, behind the seat where the emperor usually sat, there was a map hung on an openworked vast landscape embedded in mica marble screen.

Chunjia stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the north on the map. Hearing the sound of footsteps, he slowly tilted his head, signaled Deng Chengzhai to excuse him, and asked in a harmonious voice, "Weihe's incident happened again and again... ...There is no definite result so far, which really disappoints me!"

Deng Chengzhai still bowed respectfully, taking the opportunity to think quickly, hearing the emperor's tone, it was obvious that he was not satisfied with Gu Fangshu.

It's no wonder, after all, Guochao was in charge of Weihe's matter, and had lost a good opportunity because of the flood earlier.

Afterwards, they finally made up their minds to send troops. They thought they would be able to return in triumph within a few months at most. By then, not only would the northern border enjoy peace for many years, but most importantly, opening up territories has been a great achievement since ancient times.

May I ask which emperor can resist such a temptation?

Especially for an emperor like Chunjia who is not of the late emperor's blood and has two nephews who are closer in blood, he needs this kind of achievement to prove himself.

In the end, Gu Fangshu was lucky, first he was successfully attacked by He Le, and the Dingbei Army suffered a big loss.

Later, due to various reasons, he was dragged into the quagmire, and even lost many noble sons who accompanied the army... As for the harvest, Hele has not yet been destroyed, and Xifa seems to be less obedient because of his increasingly stable position. Some harvest from the mine.

For such a huge country, there is actually no advantage at all.

But Deng Chengzhai felt that Chunjia's dissatisfaction with Gu Fangshu should not be in these places, or in other words, not only in these places.

Considering that Gu Fangshu was able to take the position of commander-in-chief of the Dingbei Army back then, the emperor's biggest knot may not be concerned with Gu Fangshu's lack of ability, but doubts that Gu Fangshu will work hard but not hard.

In fact, he also had similar doubts. After all, Gu Fangshu presided over the Dingbei Army, which was a matter of Xiaozong's time.

At that time, the Ji family had already forced Xiaozong, who was young and powerful, out of breath, and even made Xiaozong unable to step down from the court many times... In this case, it should be said that the Ji family did not replace Gu Fangshu, who had an excellent relationship with the regent, Considering the northern Dinghaishenzhen who was supported by Emperor Xiaozong, it is really impossible.

But Gu Fangshu is still in charge of Dingbei Army.

How could this be a good stubble?

If you really put your heart into it, how could you fight the battle like this?

"Your Majesty, I haven't met Uncle Zhaowu yet, so it's hard to say." Deng Chengzhai thought for a moment, then said slowly, "But I think that since Uncle Zhaowu came back under the imperial edict, he is more or less a smart man."

In fact, he is not sure now whether Gu Fangshu's way of returning under the imperial edict is wise for the Gu family.

But from the standpoint of the emperor, it was the first time he summoned important generals after taking office.

It's fine if Gu Fangshu comes back, if he doesn't come back, where will Chunjia's face go? This is not something that can be saved by killing Gu's family.

So when Deng Chengzhai praised Gu Fangshu on this point, Chunjia would never object.

"Since this is the case, I think, should we give him a chance to defend himself before the emperor?" Looking at Xia Chunjia's expression, seeing that the emperor did not intend to deny it, Deng Chengzhai continued, "After all, the matter of the North... I am young and inexperienced. He can only talk on paper, but dare not speak nonsense.”

He was very happy that the emperor would discuss this kind of military affairs with him, but he didn't dare to talk nonsense.

If he made a mistake, he would leave the emperor with the impression that he would only talk in exaggeration, and maybe he would stop at the top in the future, and there would never be the same treatment as today.

Be as frank as you are now, if you don’t understand or are not sure, just express it directly, at least it will not arouse the emperor’s disgust.

After all, he is still young, and it is normal to have omissions.

Sure enough, Chunjia nodded slightly, without anger, and muttered: "I also think it should be so... This is an old minister from the late emperor's time. He should have all the skills, abilities, and vision! Otherwise, he would not have come to this day. This expedition But it's a bit of a reputation... On the way back, I didn't make an apology in advance, and I also felt a little weird."

He pondered for a while, then suddenly asked Deng Chengzhai, "Yueting, what do you think of the Queen?"

Queen?

Deng Chengzhai's heart skipped a beat. Before, the emperor had discussed the imperial concubine with him, but now he suddenly mentioned the empress. Combined with the emperor's dissatisfaction with the Gu family just now, could it be that the imperial concubine has already persuaded the emperor to change the empress?

This is a big deal!

With ups and downs in his heart, he tried his best to maintain the calm on the surface, and said slowly: "The Queen's Empress is a dignified and virtuous woman, and it is rumored that she loves all the emperor's heirs very much, and the concubines are also generous..."

Chunjia interrupted: "I don't want to hear this."

"Yes." Deng Chengzhai thought about his plan in this life, that is to follow the emperor, it doesn't matter if he offends the empress or not, besides, the emperor might not be willing to spread the conversation between the monarch and his ministers at this moment, so he said bluntly, "I think that the empress is more than generous and majestic, and she is not someone who can preside over the six palaces. But it's okay to rely on His Majesty's majesty."

Chunjia sighed, "Exactly."

He hesitated for a short while, and finally asked, "If in the future... there are ministers who try their best to persuade you, the queen's original intention is feasible, but do you think the queen will compromise?"

Deng Chengzhai realized all of a sudden, is this a plan for the future of the noble concubine?

He has also heard about the Queen's temperament. After all, Gu Zhen entered the palace when Chunjia was married. Although she was not favored and attracted attention before she became the successor, as the daughter of Uncle Zhao Wu, who would really love her? What about ignoring her?

When it comes to Gu Zhen himself, Deng Chengzhai thinks it's pretty good.

To the concubine and the emperor's heir, he has the kindness that a royal palace should have. He never said how to take the concubine and the emperor's heir because of jealousy.

But when it comes to this queen, she really doesn't have much opinion.

So in the future, if someone wants to please her or the new monarch, and insists on dealing with the imperial concubine, mother and son... that's really hard to say.

"Your Majesty, people's hearts are changeable, and I don't dare to say it." Deng Chengzhai said truthfully, "But if it's the empress who has a temperament now, I'm afraid she will compromise. The empress is always very willing to persuade."

Chunjia sighed in his heart, he thought so too.

So if the imperial concubine and the empress really had a grievance over the smallpox incident, then...it is impossible to wait until the facts are established before trying to resolve it.

It is nothing to simply abandon Gu Zhen, or even the ten and twelve princes.

The key is that even if the Gu family has no successors, the older generations like Uncle Zhaowu are still there.

"...Now is an extraordinary time, since you have entered the palace, Yueting, don't go out for now." The emperor thought for a while, and said to Deng Chengzhai, "Your former residences in the left and right palaces are still there."

After dismissing Deng Chengzhai, he ordered someone to deliver a message to Uncle Zhaowu, ordering him to disguise himself and enter the palace secretly for an audience.

After receiving the news, Mrs. Gu was terrified, because she couldn't be sure whether the emperor was in a hurry to have a face-to-face with Uncle Zhaowu, or was he planning to kill?

If it was a clear call, even the emperor, in theory, would not be able to say that he directly murdered an important minister.

At least the emperor Chunjia, who was so respectful, would not do this.

But if today the emperor asked Uncle Zhaowu to enter the palace to hide his eyes, this... If the emperor set up swordsmen in the palace to directly kill Uncle Zhaowu, and said to the outside world that Uncle Zhaowu was spying on the inside and was killed by the imperial army, it would not only be Zhaowu. If Bobai dies, the huge Gu family will also be justifiably killed, right?

It’s really not that Mrs. Gu thinks too much. Just look at Chunjia’s previous convictions. The family of the mother empress dowager is of the same family; It's over... This master seems to be destined to clash with the descendants.

The Gu family really didn't have the courage to think that their new descendants were special.

"Your Majesty has an order, so I still have to go." There was a lot of silence in the main hall, but Uncle Zhaowu finally made up his mind and said, "Otherwise it is disobedience. Those two families can't be wronged, after all, they clearly deceived the emperor. Although I, the Gu family, are not sensitive, I have never done anything that disrespects the emperor... Your Majesty is not going to do that."

Old Mrs. Gu said worriedly: "I thought the same way before, and even thought that His Majesty favored the noble concubine, maybe he wanted our family to owe the noble concubine a favor... But I didn't expect that His Majesty would summon her secretly. This... the current state of mind, I Waiting is really hard to guess!"

No matter how stable he had imagined before, how could he not be worried about his own son after all?

But Uncle Zhaowu himself insisted, and besides, they have no capital to object now, so they could only watch Gu Fangshu change his clothes after nightfall, quietly leave the corner gate and go to the palace city.