Chapter 17: Lord and Minister
To the northeast of the imperial city, across the canal, there is a Jiuqufang.
Jiuqufang, which is about 220 miles long and wide, is not included in the list of markets in Gaojing, but is directly governed by the Shaofu and is a private garden owned by the royal family.
Jiuqufang is also known as Jiuqu Garden, with unique mountains and rivers, and its main trunk is a Jiuqu Mingxi River.
After continuous expansion by successive emperors of Dayin, Jiuqu Garden now has nine palaces, 108 halls, nearly a thousand large and small pavilions, and countless exotic flowers and plants planted. Even in the cold winter, there are still exotic flowers blooming and the fragrance is everywhere.
After the current Emperor Jiayou ascended the throne, various rare birds and animals gradually appeared in Jiuqu Garden.
Later, because of some things, Jiuqu Garden changed its name in Gaojing. About ten years ago, Jiuqu Garden became the "Beast Garden" in the mouths of the people of Gaojing. With the help of a group of scholars, the "Beast Garden" has become notorious.
The current emperor, Emperor Jiayou Yinyuan, does not like the imperial city and has lived in Jiuqu Garden for several years.
Even at the palace dinner held in the imperial city on New Year's Eve this year, Emperor Jiayou only showed up reluctantly. He stayed in the Grand Hall for less than a quarter of an hour before secretly leaving the table and leaving all matters to the current empress dowager.
Bai Changkong spat out a small mouthful of blood at the street corner. He was so angry that his eyes were bloodshot, and he didn't bother to argue with a few soldiers. Accompanied by a few great sages and old friends, he rode wildly all the way along the east wall of the imperial city for dozens of miles and came to the gate of Jiuqu Garden.
A team of Yulin troops stationed here stopped Bai Changkong and others.
A quarter of an hour later, Bai Changkong's message of requesting to see the emperor was sent to the depths of Jiuqu Garden through several transmission channels.
Next to a frozen lake, surrounded by green mountains, a towering palace is surrounded by several exquisite pavilions.
Below the hall, several fire dragons were burning red, making the hall as warm as spring, even a little hot.
Around the hall, the outer layer of the double carved wooden doors were opened, and the warm sunlight shone into the hall through the inner layer of the carved doors inlaid with large pieces of crystal, illuminating the hall brightly.
In the spacious and bright hall, sandalwood shelves were neatly arranged around, on which were placed cricket jars of various materials. In the jars, hundreds of crickets were chirping very vigorously, and the high-pitched calls mixed together, almost blowing the roof of the hall off.
In the middle of the hall, on a white carpet several meters long and wide, Emperor Jiayou Yinyuan, wearing a dark purple robe and with his long hair loose, was lying on the ground, holding a long grass in his right hand and carefully teasing a large cricket with a golden head and silver back in the cricket jar in front of him.
"My great golden-headed general, uh, fight for your dignity, fight for your dignity. Yu Changle, that old fellow, has won eighteen games in a row. You can't lose this one, you can't lose!"
Emperor Jiayou Yinyuan had a good royal bloodline, was tall and strong, had a handsome face with a square shape, sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and was quite handsome. Judging from his appearance alone, he was worthy of being an emperor.
However, his long hair was disheveled, his robes were messy, his eye sockets were slightly sunken and dark, he had two huge dark bags under his eyes, blue lips, and his cheeks were slightly drooping, making him look listless and giving people the impression of a "tyrant" who was "excessively intoxicated" with alcohol and sex.
The old fellow Yu Changle he mentioned was lying opposite him, head to head, using long grass to tease another big cricket with a red head and a bronze body in the cricket jar.
He was a first-rank attendant in the inner court of the Dayinwu Dynasty, the chief supervisor of the twenty-four prisons in the inner court, the commander-in-chief of the palace guards, the military supervisor of the Yulin Army, and the chief director of the Shaofu. He was the most trusted and close minister to Emperor Jiayou, and the eunuch who had been serving the emperor since he was still breastfeeding, Yu Changle!
He was wearing a dark purple robe with a huge, blood-red one-horned gecko embroidered on his chest. There were ten blood-red spots on the midline of the gecko's back from head to tail. Yu Changle was over eight feet tall and had a waist circumference of nearly eight feet. He had white hair, a white face, and no beard. His round face was filled with a bright smile, and he looked harmless.
Yu Changle never puts on makeup, but his face is naturally silvery white and his lips are as red as if they were painted with blood.
Because of his appearance, all the scholars and students in the court of Dayin said that - 'Yu Changle likes to eat the hearts of young children, and he must eat three of them a day, so that his blood will rebound and his lips will be as red as blood'!
Others said, "In order to maintain youth and longevity, Yu Changle used the blood of young girls instead of tea every day, which is why he kept his skin smooth and shiny!"
Others said, "Yu Changle is a fake eunuch. Every time the palace recruits new palace maids, they have to be controlled by Yu Changle. He is good at all kinds of evil methods of taking Yin to replenish Yang, so he is still energetic at the age of nearly sixty!"
Thanks to these people, Yu Changle's reputation in Dayin was like a devil from the underworld, who could stop a baby from crying in the middle of the night .
Amid the sharp chirping of crickets, Yu Changle's red-headed cricket grabbed Emperor Jiayou's golden-headed general in one bite. After a stalemate, a scream was heard, and one of the golden-headed general's thighs was bitten off. The red-headed cricket shook its head and threw it out of the cricket jar.
Yu Changle clapped his hands and laughed loudly: "Oh, oh, what do you mean? Your Majesty, this old servant is lucky. I will give you a hundred strings of cash. Hehehe!"
Emperor Jiayou raised his head, sighed deeply, threw away the long grass, and held the golden-headed general with a broken leg in his palm with a troubled look on his face.
"Hey, my great general, you are really, really... As the old saying goes, you need to raise an army for a thousand days in one day. You really wasted the food and money for nothing."
"But, you didn't fight well, so I can't be unkind, right?"
"Come here, take the Golden Head General down, take good care of him, and wait on him till the end of his life."
Two eunuchs in red robes tiptoed up, took the golden-headed general from Emperor Jiayou's hand, put it into a cricket jar inlaid with gold and jade, and carefully placed it on a wooden shelf nearby.
Emperor Jiayou lay down without caring about his image, looking at the carved caisson in the hall with his arms and legs spread out: "Hey, Lao Yu, remember this account first. Money is tight recently, you know, after the first month of the year, I have to find a way to make some more money."
Yu Changle sat cross-legged beside Emperor Jiayou and said softly, "Your Majesty, rest assured. I remember everything clearly and I promise that not a penny will be missing."
Emperor Jiayou glanced at Yu Changle and snorted coldly, "Old man!"
Emperor Jiayou rolled his eyes and kicked his legs in boredom: "Hey, is there anything new and interesting in the market recently?"
Yu Changle squinted his eyes, covered his mouth and laughed softly: "How can there be new and strange things every day? It's still the same as always, the country is peaceful and the people are safe, the weather is good, and the court is full of gentlemen, working for the country and the people, so the people live and work in contentment, and the world is at peace!"
Emperor Jiayou turned his head and spat heavily on the carpet.
"Gentleman? Shock!"
"Just that bunch of stuff, huh!"
"That means that each generation of military meritorious officials is getting weaker than the previous one. If they were a little more motivated, would they have had the chance to take over the position of these hypocrites who are good at writing?"
Shaking his head, Emperor Jiayou suddenly straightened up and sat cross-legged opposite Yu Changle.
"Have you found out what happened before the New Year?"
The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became more mysterious. Emperor Jiayou lowered his voice and looked at Yu Changle furtively: "Then Anlefang Commander He Jun said that it was a ghost. Is there really a ghost?"
The playful Yu Changle also turned serious. He looked at Emperor Jiayou seriously and said softly, "Your Majesty, I am not afraid of ghosts. What I am afraid of is that it is not ghosts that are haunting me!"
Emperor Jiayou looked at Yu Changle with a grim gaze.
Yu Changle blinked and looked at Emperor Jiayou.
After staring at each other for a long time, Emperor Jiayou turned his head and looked through the crystal window at the frozen lake outside the main entrance of the hall.
"I have read the ancient books of the Secret History Bureau. It is said that there are ghosts in this world."
Emperor Jiayou murmured, "It's just that people just follow what others say. After so many years, who in this world has seen a ghost with their own eyes?"
"Not to mention, she's an extremely beautiful female ghost."
"I really want to see with my own eyes what this ghost looks like."
"Old Fish, you're right, this ghost is really not as scary as nobody else."
"The news must be kept secret, and must not be leaked." Emperor Jiayou said dimly, "Your reputation and mine are already bad enough. If it gets out that there are ghosts haunting Gaojing, then it must be that the emperor has lost his virtue and favored treacherous people, which is why the country and the people are suffering!"
"I am the immoral tyrant."
"You are the spoiled traitor."
"As a tyrant, what should I be afraid of?"
"Who can do anything to me?"
"Who dares to do anything to me?"
"If we change another emperor, he might not be as good as me."
"But, as a traitor, Lao Yu, you might end up getting killed!"
Emperor Jiayou gently patted Yu Changle's thick and soft shoulders. The fat on Yu Changle's body trembled slightly. His round white face was full of coldness and desolation as if he had been torn apart by a hundred mad dogs.
A eunuch ran into the hall quietly and silently, bringing with him a gust of fresh breeze.
"Your Majesty, Bai Changkong from the Imperial Academy wishes to see you."
Yu Changle, who looked pitiful, narrowed his eyes. A cold air spread around him. He stood up silently and looked at the eunuch with a gloomy face.
Emperor Jiayou was stunned. He turned his head and looked at the eunuchs. He suddenly sneered, "Bai Changkong? That hypocritical old man. Don't we have any friendship on weekdays? In these years, I have seen him less than 30 times in total. What is he doing here during the New Year? Needless to say, the weasel is paying New Year's greetings to the chicken, and he has no good intentions."
Blinking his eyes, Emperor Jiayou waved his sleeves and said, "Tell him that I went out with Concubine Qi last night and Xiao Ran caught a cold and is lying down. Tell him to go to the Queen Mother if he has anything to do and stop making noise here."
Yu Changle coughed lightly and said, "Your Majesty, it is 'bing' the candlelight night tour, 'bing'!"
Emperor Jiayou sneered, "It's just 'riding' a candlelight night tour. Tell Bai Changkong the exact words, exact lyrics, exact sentences. Deputy headmaster of the Imperial College? Pah, I'm just uneducated, but he's capable, he told me to 'study hard and make progress'!"
Emperor Jiayou sneered repeatedly.
Yu Changle and the eunuchs around him all showed mysterious smiles at the same time.
A quarter of an hour later, Yu Changle got all the relevant information about Lu Yi. He read it carefully and laughed: "Oh, what a promising kid. Can he make Bai Changkong vomit blood? What a talent. We need to train him well!"
"The nephew of Marquis Tian'en, whose grandfather was once a military officer of the Imperial Guards?"
"This is our real family."
"However, Bai Changkong seems to have overreacted to this matter? Investigate, use all means, and investigate thoroughly. Why does this marriage feel full of evil spirits? There must be something shady going on here, we must find out!"
While Yu Changle was checking Lu Yi's file information, Bai Changkong received a reply from the eunuch.
Bai Changkong was silent for a while, then burst into a hysterical roar.
"A tyrant, a tyrant! A tyrant who is ignorant and incompetent. The Dayin Dynasty is doomed to perish with such a tyrant. It is doomed to perish!"
"Yu Changle, you are a traitor, a traitor! If our Great Yin Dynasty is destroyed, you will be the culprit!"
"Yu Changle, how dare you mislead young people and use your power to force good family members to join your eunuch party and become your lackeys?"
"I, Bai Changkong, will never coexist with your eunuch party!"
"I am so angry, I am so angry, that Lu Yi is willing to fall into depravity, I, Bai Changkong, am so kind and enthusiastic, and I have a brotherly relationship with the eldest brother of the Lu family for decades, this is such a loyalty and loyalty!"
With a "puff" sound, Bai Changkong spat out three feet of blood.
He jumped up with a scream and slammed headfirst into the large archway at the entrance of Jiuqu Garden. His head was broken and bleeding, and he fainted back.
Several great sages exclaimed in unison, cursing "tyrant" and "treacherous", and hurriedly picked up Bai Changkong and turned away!
In the evening, inside and outside the city of Haojing, in brothels, taverns and other busy places, countless cultural and educational disciples came out to tell the story of the "treacherous Yu Changle" who "brought disaster to the country and the people", and how he used his power to coerce and bribe good family boys to join the eunuch party and wantonly humiliate the "pillars of the country".
The Bai family openly announced that they were ashamed to associate with the eunuch party. Since Lu Yi had fallen into depravity, the Bai family decided to officially annul the engagement between their daughter Bai Lu and Lu Yi. Bai Lu should choose a talented man from Haojing and get married today!
