Chapter 2: The Tree Wants to Be Still but the Wind Does Not Stop
Um?
Catch him?
Wasn't he killed?
When did His Highness become merciful?
Xie Shufang was a little confused, but still bowed and agreed.
“Yes!”
Xie Shufang stood up, clasped his hands and walked backwards out of the main hall.
"etc!"
Just as Xie Shufang took a few steps back, Li Yuanji's voice rang out.
Xie Shufang hurried back to where he was and knelt on one knee. "Your Highness, do you have any other instructions?"
Li Yuanji smiled calmly and said, "I want you to walk out with your head held high."
"ah?!"
Xie Shufang was even more confused, with a look of bewilderment on his handsome face.
Li Yuanji deliberately frowned, "This is a military order!"
Military orders are as heavy as mountains and must be obeyed.
Xie Shufang was not only an official in the Prince of Qi's palace, but also a soldier in front of the Prince of Qi's tent.
Xie Shufang stood up in a daze, and with his head raised stiffly, he left the main hall...
Li Yuanji looked at Xie Shufang's stiff movements and shook his head secretly, "He still lacks the sharpness that a young man should have. He still needs to be guided..."
Xie Shufang left, and the maid also left.
Li Yuanji was the only one left in the main hall, and he felt at ease.
He untied his collar again and slumped down on the couch in the main hall without any image.
Less than half an incense stick of time later, a woman in a dark blue robe, holding a mahogany square tray, walked into the hall with her head lowered and small steps.
When Li Yuanji saw the woman, he sighed slightly.
The woman's long hair on both sides of her temples was slightly dull and gray, and strands of white hair were clearly visible in the bun on top of her head. The woman was only thirty-five years old, but she looked like she was fifty.
The reason why she is called a girl instead of a woman is because she is still unmarried.
Ten days ago, she was a beautiful woman with a radiant face and flowing black hair. Now she has become a woman with a haggard face, dull eyes and dry hair.
From a distance, it looked like a decaying corpse.
She is the adoptive mother of her previous life, Chen Shanyi.
A woman who was deeply hurt by her predecessor, but still cares about her predecessor's food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Li Yuanji could see that her heart had long been tied to her predecessor, and being nice to him had become her instinct.
His previous incarnation actually ordered people to dismember her. He was worse than a beast. No wonder God couldn't stand it and struck him to death with a thunderbolt.
Li Yuanji couldn't stand it either. He inherited everything from his predecessor, and he didn't mind helping his predecessor atone for his sins.
Li Yuanji stood up, barefoot, and took the initiative to walk forward, calling out in the most gentle tone of his life, "Empress Chen..."
"Niangniang" was not a distinguished title in the Tang Dynasty, but a very common title.
Concubines in the palace can be called "Niangniang", and aunts, concubines, foster mothers and wet nurses in ordinary people's families outside the palace can also be called "Niangniang".
This name has been used until later generations.
In some places in Guanzhong in later generations, people still called their aunt "Niangniang".
It’s just that the pronunciation is a bit odd (nia, second tone).
Chen Shanyi seemed not to hear it and continued walking forward with a dull look in his eyes.
It wasn't until Li Yuanji's hands touched her arms that she reacted a little.
She trembled subconsciously, took a step back, and prevented Li Yuanji's hand from touching her again.
It was her body's instinctive self-protection reaction.
Li Yuanji did not dare to provoke her again. He stood where he was and said softly, "Mrs. Chen, I play the Sanhu..."
Sanhu was the nickname of my predecessor, but he hated being called Sanhu.
When he was a child and didn't know much, he would respond if someone called him Sanhu. But when he grew up and became sensible, he would get angry if someone called him that again.
The reason why he is like a cluster is that his appearance is a bit regressive, with obvious Hu features, which is significantly different from the Han Chinese looks of his brothers and sisters. Standing among his brothers and sisters, he looks like an alien.
His biological mother, Dou, disliked him and ignored him, so he was raised by Chen Shanyi.
His brutal character has a lot to do with the fact that he is disliked by his biological mother.
According to Li Yuanji's understanding of history, the reason why his predecessor looked like a Hu person had a lot to do with Dou family. It made no sense for Dou family to dislike his predecessor.
It is hard to say whether the paternal line of the predecessor had Hu blood. History has not given a clear answer, and Li Yuanji did not find any relevant memories in his predecessor's memory. But it is certain that the maternal line had Hu blood.
When Chen Shanyi heard the word "Sanhu", there was finally a glimmer of light in his eyes and he looked up at Li Yuanji.
When his eyes fell on Li Yuanji's face, they suddenly widened with fear.
Chen Shanyi's body began to tremble. She suppressed the fear in her heart, put the mahogany square plate aside, and crawled on the ground, not daring to move.
Li Yuanji looked at Chen Shanyi's reaction and felt a little heartbroken and sad.
He squatted down and whispered, "My Lady, San Hu knows he is wrong..."
Chen Shanyi's body trembled, and her breathing became rapid. She stammered, "Slave...slave will take your leave..."
Before Li Yuanji could speak, Chen Shanyi had already crawled out of the main hall.
Li Yuanji wanted to slap his predecessor, and cursed through gritted teeth, "You thief!"
The predecessor was nothing!
His adoptive mother was more afraid of him than a ghost, which shows how much harm he caused to her.
Li Yuan and Dou Shi were not good people either. They gave birth to children but failed to educate them, and ended up causing harm to others.
If Li Yuan and Dou were unwilling to teach, they could have given Chen Shanyi an identity, given Chen Shanyi the power to educate his predecessor, and let Chen Shanyi teach his predecessor how to be a good person.
But they did not do so at all, so after the predecessor grew up, Chen Shanyi had no way to educate and discipline the predecessor, and eventually the predecessor became a scourge.
Li Yuanji has already decided that after the treacherous people in the mansion have been dealt with and the confinement period is over, he will take the beautiful girls in the mansion and Chen Shanyi out to enjoy the mountains and rivers.
He felt uncomfortable in this palace.
The word "cannibalism" was everywhere in this palace, and he really couldn't stay there any longer.
Li Yuanji was unhappy. He took the mahogany square plate left by Chen Shanyi, placed it on the long table in front of the couch, and sat down on the long table.
We sat there until evening.
In the evening, Li Yuanji's mood still hadn't improved at all, so he prepared to go out for a walk.
Li Yuan only confined him to the Wude Hall, but did not confine him to the main hall of the Wude Hall.
He can still walk around the Wude Hall.
Wude Hall was the residence bestowed by Li Yuan on his predecessor. It was both a palace and the Prince of Qi's palace.
The Wude Hall covers a large area and is fully equipped with pavilions and towers.
Not only did his predecessor, his concubines, wives, and children live in the Wude Hall, but also thousands of palace servants and hundreds of guards.
To the east are the armory and the inner courtyard of the monks' kitchen, and further on is the Eastern Palace of Crown Prince Li Jiancheng.
To the west are Daji Hall, Lizheng Hall, Wanchun Hall, Liangyi Hall, Qianqiu Hall, Princess Courtyard, Baifu Hall, and Chengqing Hall, where Li Shimin lived, also known as the Qin Palace.
Chengqing Hall was formerly called Chengqian Hall. When Li Shimin's eldest son Li Chengqian was born, some officials believed that it was a good omen since Li Chengqian was born in Chengqian Hall (Chengqian means "inheriting the imperial career and taking charge of the world"), so Li Yuan named him Li Chengqian.
Since the two words "Chengqian" were used by his grandson, they naturally could no longer be used as the name of the palace, so Li Yuan changed Chengqian Palace to Chengqing Palace.
It means to celebrate the birth of Li Chengqian.
Letting his adult sons live in the palace was definitely a bold move by Li Yuan.
Li Yuan's original intention in doing this was to let his sons live together, allow them to visit each other and enhance brotherly friendship.
For this purpose, he specially arranged the residence of his three sons on a central axis that ran through the Taiji Palace from east to west. There were also countless doors on the central axis, allowing his sons to move around freely.
Unfortunately, it was Li Yuan’s first time as emperor and he had no idea that the temptation of imperial power could not be resisted by mere friendship.
When their ambition for power outweighed their friendship, the convenient door provided by Li Yuan became a channel for them to fight against each other.
Li Yuanji walked barefoot to the door of the main hall. When he felt the bone-chilling cold, he realized that he was not wearing shoes.
Li Yuanji was just about to tell the maid guarding outside the hall to help him put on his shoes when he saw a guard hurriedly arriving in front of the main hall.
The guards of Wude Hall can pass through the front hall and the main hall, but they cannot go to the back hall.
The rear hall is the bedroom, where the women of the Prince of Qi live.
The guard walked to the front of the palace and saw Li Yuanji standing at the door. He saluted and said, "Your Highness, Yin Jianmen requests to see you."
Li Yuanji frowned , "No."
The guard hesitated for a moment, lowered his head, and whispered: "Yin Jianmen has already passed through the front hall and is heading here..."
Li Yuanji looked displeased.
Yin Jianmen's real name was Yin Ashu. His daughter was Li Yuan's favorite concubine Yin Defei, and his grandson was Prince of Feng Li Yuanheng.
Thanks to his daughter's status, Yin Ashu's father transformed himself from a ruffian into a gatekeeper of the Liangyi Hall of the Taiji Palace.
His predecessor, Li Jiancheng, and Concubine Yin De had some private interests, so Yin Ashu could run rampant in the Prince's Palace and the Prince of Qi's Mansion.
Historical records say that the predecessor, Li Jiancheng and Concubine Yin De had a relationship that went beyond friendship. Judging from the memories that Li Yuanji has obtained from his predecessor, this is pure nonsense.
The messages between them were basically transmitted through Yin Ashu and his guards.
They met on weekdays and also when Li Yuan held a grand banquet.
Li Yuanji had no intention of competing for the imperial power, so he naturally didn't need to give Yin Ashu a good face. He immediately ordered, "Drive him out!"
The guard was stunned and was about to agree when Yin Ashu had already rushed to the front of the main hall. Seeing Li Yuanji standing at the entrance of the main hall, he laughed out loud, "Your Highness, I have vented my anger for you today, you must reward me well."
