Section 19 Farewell

One bamboo slip, one foot long, was pinched in Wei Huang's hands, and a few shorter ones were pinched in Wei Huang's hands like a blooming flower, emitting an ominous aura.

Fu Dian suddenly felt a little breathless, and a strong sense of fear stuck in his heart like a big stone, making him feel his temples pounding, his legs became weak, and his arms began to numb, all the way to the tips of his fingers. He was so familiar with this bamboo slip that was one foot long was the length of the bamboo slip for the edict. He saw this bamboo slip thirteen years ago. After a long time, this bamboo slip was like a sharp sword, hanging in his heart, and he woke him up from his nightmare. However, after that night, he never saw this bamboo slip again. So many years ago, he thought he had been quietly destroyed by his father, and slowly forgot it. It was only after he was inexplicably awakened at midnight that he would occasionally think of this bamboo slip that had only twenty or thirty words written on it.

This is the emperor's edict, hidden in a jade belt to reward his father. The shorter bamboo slips are letters from his sister Empress Fu to ask for help from his father and brother. Every word is bloody and tears, which is shocking. It once made Fu Dian sad and excited, and it also made him sweat all over his body, but now it is a bolt from the blue. It turns out that my father has always been hiding it, no wonder he never leaves his body with his pillow, and solemnly asked him to keep it well before he died. He never expected that his father had hidden the emperor's edict inside.

Beads of sweat the size of beans were oozing from Fu Dian's forehead. He felt a little disobedient. Although he wanted to try his best to take back the edict from Wei Huang's hand, he couldn't move and could only look at Wei Huang who was smiling in a dark way. Wei Huang glanced at the bamboo slips, smiling on his face, but his hands couldn't stop trembling, and seemed to be overly excited. He let out a long breath and walked slowly to Fu Dian: "Master Fu, do you hide the emperor's edict in this pillow, and do you still sit on it often? Such disrespect to the emperor is not evidence of your crime. Is it true that you have received the emperor's kindness in this world?

His voice sounded very smooth, as if he was trying hard to suppress his smugness.

Fu Dian couldn't speak at all. He felt a little weak and dizzy in front of him. Wei Huang's face seemed to start shaking in front of him. He raised his hand weakly and pointed at Wei Huang. There was a giggling sound in his throat, but there was no complete sentence. Suddenly, one leg seemed to lose consciousness and fell towards Wei Huang with a pounce, as if a dying tiger was about to pounce on the last prey.

Wei Huang was shocked and quickly took a few steps back. Fu Dian suddenly fell in front of him, twitching his hands and feet twice, but he could not get up. Fu Ya was shocked when she saw it. She didn't care about the shining spears in the hands of the soldiers with straight eyebrows and eyes. She rushed over and picked up Fu Dian and shouted in panic. Then his other brothers and nephews rushed over and cried around Fu Dian.

Wei Huang frowned and waved his hand to repel the soldiers who were about to rush up. He hesitated for a moment, put several bamboo slips in his arms, and immediately hurriedly left the Fu Mansion with his people. While he rushed back, he asked a confidant to quietly arrive at Zhong Yao's mansion and passed a message to Zhong Yao. After hearing this, Zhong Yao was shocked for a while and was speechless. After coming to his senses, he immediately went to the palace to ask the emperor.

"Executive?" The emperor raised his slender eyebrows, as if he was not very good at thinking about it.

"That's right." Zhong Yao looked sweaty and looked up and saw that the emperor hadn't figured it out yet. He quickly reminded him: "It seems to be the fifth year of Jian'an."

The emperor's eyes turned and suddenly understood. He jumped up in shock, his voice became sharp and thin: "The father-in-law still has that edict?"

Zhong Yao nodded, and the emperor's face turned pale. He was stunned for a while, and suddenly shouted to Jin Yi and Wei Fei standing aside, "Hurry, let's tell Wei Aiqing."

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..." Zhong Yao shouted softly: "Your Majesty, don't panic. Lord Wei has his own responsibilities. He asked him to inform him to be a minister. Please immediately issue an edict to abolish the queen and destroy the Fu family." As he said that, he took out a memorial from his sleeve and held his hands in front of the emperor.

"Wei... Is your beloved minister... a loyal minister?" The emperor looked at Zhong Yao in disbelief. After looking for a long time, he let out a long sigh, and a trace of glory of escaping after the disaster appeared in the corner of his eyes. He tried his best to stabilize his emotions, reached out to take Zhong Yao's memorial, and read it quickly. His face became paler and his hands were trembling gently.

"Your Majesty, there is not much time left. Please issue an edict quickly to prevent the situation from escalating further." Zhong Yao lowered his voice and shouted in a hurry.

The emperor stood up for a while, suddenly gritted his teeth, walked to the desk and sat down. He raised the pen that Wei Feng had already dipped ink, picked up a bamboo slip that Jin Yi had just found on the desk. After reading it for a moment, he suddenly felt a sense of absurd sadness. He was so anxious that he wrote, and in a short while, he re-wrote an edict on the bamboo slip that was no longer common in the palace and handed it to Jin Yi. Jin Yi quietly rushed to Wei Huang's Sizhi Mansion with this bamboo slip.

Wei Huang was sitting quietly in the mansion, with only the confidant who reported the message to Zhong Yao next to him. The bamboo slips were placed in front of him. His face was very calm, but there was a trace of panic flashing in his eyes from time to time. His hands on the desk were trembling unnaturally. He heard the footsteps outside, subconsciously stretched out his hand, quickly grabbed the bamboo slips and stuffed them to his chest. Seeing that it was Jin Yi who came in, he let out a long sigh.

"Deyi, has the emperor issued an edict?" Wei Huang asked anxiously.

Jin Yi didn't care about wiping the sweat beads on his forehead, so he took out the bamboo slip from his arms and handed it to Wei Huang. Wei Huang took a closer look, nodded, and handed the edict that had been found from the Fu family to Jin Yi. After Jin Yi looked at it, he threw it into the brazier next to him. The flames licked the dry bamboo slips, and suddenly rose up. He quickly burned the bamboo slips to ashes, along with the edict of the emperor above.

Jin Yi stared at the flames and stared at them. He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until the bamboo slips were burned out. He turned to Wei Huang and said, "Meng Ming, I really lost to you this time. The emperor has approved Lord Zhong's memorial and issued an edict to depose the queen. As for General Cao, you must be careful to deal with it and not reveal any flaws."

Wei Huang nodded: "I have my own idea, you should leave quickly and not let people see it."

Jin Yi nodded, bowed to Wei Huang again, and left hurriedly. Wei Huang was relieved at this time and made a gesture to his confidant: "Let's go, let's see General Cao."

…………

Cao Chong glanced at the bamboo slips that were foot to one inch long, gently placed them aside, picked up the shorter bamboo slips, and smiled on his face. He put down the bamboo slips, sat backwards, and smiled at Wei Huang who was sitting opposite him, "Meng Ming, this is a good thing. With the letters from Fuhou, she can't do the queen, and my task has been completed. What do you think I can reward you?"

Wei Huang let out a sigh of relief and smiled faintly: "Wei Huang is supported by the young master, so he should serve the young master."

Cao Chong smiled and waved his hand: "If you have merits, you will be rewarded; if you have mistakes, you will be punished. This is also common sense. If you have made too much contribution, I may not be able to reward you. After I report back to the Prime Minister's Office, I will say that you are at ease and be patient."

Wei Huang was overjoyed, and hurriedly bowed his hand and left in a hurry. When he left the door, the smile on Cao Chong's face disappeared. He picked up the edict that the emperor had just written and snorted: "These people are so stupid. They can't even make a fake one. Although the bamboo slips are old, the ink traces are new. Do you think I can't see it? Or do you bully me young?"

Zhang Song smiled: "Since the general wants to push the boat and don't want to expand the situation, why bother with this? Anyway, the queen is deposed, that is, the task is completed. Don't take the emperor's little cleverness too seriously. Could it be that the general wants to destroy the emperor a little?"

Cao Chong sighed, and when he saw the bamboo slip, he saw the problem. The letters written by the queen were real, but the edict of the emperor was fake. The ink on it was very new, obviously it was just written. Unexpectedly, Wei Huang was also lying to slash him with one knife just now. But considering that Wei Huang dared to play such a trick in front of him at such a big risk, it was probably not as simple as the deposed queen when he was stabbed out. He didn't want to make the matter too big for a moment, so he had to pretend that he didn't see it and fool him. But this anger made him very upset.

Cao Chong turned around and raised his head to Zhang Song and said, "Let's take a look at these bamboo slips for Xi Hongyu. He is the censor and can be in charge of this matter. In addition, he notified Zong Zheng Liu Zhang to discuss and deal with it." He thought about it, and suddenly felt a little worried and a little confused. He turned his head to Pang Tong sitting beside him and said, "Shi Yuan, I didn't expect that there are many loyal ministers who are willing to ignore their lives for the sake of the emperor."

Pang Tong smiled faintly: "General, the foundation of the Han Dynasty for four hundred years, is reasonable for some loyal ministers. Since the emperor ascended the throne, there has been no fault. The general knows, and the prime minister knows it, otherwise he would not agree to the general's plan to not advance or retreat."

Cao Chong pointed a little. He knew that Cao Cao had more eyeliners in Xu County than Zhang Songbu, and he was more concerned about the whereabouts of the ministers than him. He looked at the fake edict with some concern and glanced at Zhang Song. Zhang Song shook his head and said, "Young Master, don't worry. Lord Wei searched for this edict, and it was not too long. The person I arranged did not hear anything abnormal. I think that the person arranged by Lord Guo can only know at most that the edict was found, but what edict it was may not be known. If the young master is worried, I can process it again to ensure that Master Guo's eyes cannot tell the true or false."

Looking at Zhang Song's relaxed look, Cao Chong smiled. Since he observed the files left by Guo Jia in the Prime Minister's Mansion, he was indeed more awesome than before. He was confident that he had missed Guo Yi, the spy leader of Guo Jia's direct descendants. After thinking about it, he felt that it was not a good thing to reveal the real edict at present, so he agreed to Zhang Song's opinion. Anyway, the matter of defamation has been fully completed, and he can return to Yecheng to receive the reward of the thousand war horses safely.

…………

The emperor was restless in the hall, a piece of snow-white paper from the Cai family Chengxin Hall in Xiangyang was lying quietly on the table. Zhong Yao and Wei Feng were sitting aside, anxiously waiting for the emperor to issue an edict. The emperor was trembling with nerves, the muscles on his face twitched uncontrollably, and his slender fingers were tightly held together, and his fingertips were a little white.

Jin Yi walked in quickly. He glanced at Zhong Yao, nodded gently, and walked to the emperor to kneel down: "Your Majesty, Lord Wei has sent the edict to General Cao. Everything goes well, General Cao has not seen any flaws."

"Wow—" The emperor breathed a long sigh of relief, his tight face relaxed a little, and his body that had been erected also collapsed. He let go of his hands and raised his arms to get the pen, but found that his arms had been twisted for too long, and he felt sore as soon as he moved. He grinned and shook his arms while asking, "Cao Aiqing really didn't see the flaw?"

Jin Yi hesitated for a moment: "I think that since the edict has been destroyed, he even doubts and cannot find any definite evidence. It will only make things out of control and will not benefit him. Besides, General Zhennan has always been loyal to His Majesty. If he hadn't been dealing with it, he would have been afraid..."

The emperor nodded: "I know the loyalty of General Zhennan, but it's a pity... his surname is Cao." As he said, a helpless smile appeared on his face. He picked up the pen, but it didn't fall into the ink for a long time. He sighed, put down the pen and turned around and walked out slowly. A desolate voice came from behind: "Several dear friends are discussing drafting an edict, I... am really tired."

Zhong Yao and others looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time, but they could not imagine it, so they had to come together to discuss how to word.

The emperor left the palace gate and walked slowly along the bluestone steps. The sky was as cloudy as if water was about to drip out. The thick clouds gradually closed together, covering the vast sunset tightly. The sky seemed to be darkening in advance. The heavier twilight made people breathless. The emperor closed his lips tightly and walked forward step by step. Before he knew it, he stood up before the palace where the queen lived. He raised his head and looked at the roof of the sky stubbornly pointing to the sky in the twilight. He was stunned for a while. He wanted to raise his legs into the palace to see the queen, but he felt that his legs weighed a thousand pounds. After all his strength, he still couldn't lift it.

The little yellow gate beside him looked at the emperor's insanity, bowed and said softly, "Your Majesty, why don't you... go and inform the queen to take the opportunity?"

The emperor waved his hand powerlessly and lowered his head. Two tears slid from his eye sockets, hitting the bluestone slab under his feet, splashing into two small flowers, and soon spilling into a faint trace of water.

In the gloomy sky, a lightning flashed through the clouds, and the rumbling thunder rolled in from afar, and suddenly exploded in his ears, which shocked the emperor and made a furious blow. A burst of cold sweat came out of his body. He raised his head suddenly, and a raindrop as big as a bean fell from the sky, hitting his face heavily.

"Your Majesty, be careful of catching a cold." The little yellow gate quickly held the emperor's arm and pulled him half-hardened to the steps. As soon as they stood in the corridor, the crackling sound of raindrops had already sounded, and the blue-white bluestone slabs quickly turned blue-black, shining with a faint light.

A gentle footsteps came from the hall. The haggard and tear-stained queen Fu Shou appeared at the door and bowed to the emperor: "I don't know that Your Majesty is coming, I'm late to welcome you. Please forgive me."

The emperor looked at Fu Shou, who was still maintaining the Queen's manners, and tears burst out in his heart. He rushed forward, bent down, stretched out his hands to help Fu Shou up and said, "Queen, don't blame me."

"Your Majesty, I am responsible for my own actions, how dare I blame Your Majesty?" Fu Shou stood up and pulled the emperor slowly into the hall. Her voice had calmed down together, and even a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth. When the two walked into the hall, the palace maids retreated, leaving only the two of them sitting opposite each other, crying, and for a moment there was nothing to say, only the swaying lights pulled their shadows long and short, as if they were falling leaves floating in the wind.

"Queen, I didn't expect that the father-in-law would still keep the edict. I thought he would have been ruined long ago." The emperor murmured, raised his sleeves and wiped the corners of his eyes, stretched out his hand to hold the queen's cold little hand.

"Your Majesty, it is the fault of my Fu family. Now it is up to my Fu family to bear it. Your Majesty does not need to blame yourself." The queen looked at the emperor's eyes and tried her best to calm her voice, but she still couldn't help trembling. She pulled her hand from the emperor's big hand and leaned on the ground: "I dare not survive. I just want your Majesty to ask you to leave some blood for my Fu family for twenty years of service and for my Fu family's loyalty to Your Majesty."

The emperor remained silent. Looking at the queen's still slender waist, he felt only a sense of sadness. Yes, he was the emperor and the emperor who ruled the world, but he could not even protect his own queen. How sad this is. The queen has been by his side since she entered the palace in the first year of Chuping. She was the only touch of warmth in his heart during the most miserable and helpless days. The two of them have been in love with each other for more than 20 years, and have experienced countless hardships and horrors together. They thought they could hold their hands and grow old together, but now because of that edict, they will be separated forever. He was a little angry and resentful that the country was too busy to kill the thief, and if they were willing to kill the thief, they should act immediately after receiving the edict. Since they were powerless, why should they keep this edict? They ruined the empress and the Fu family for nothing, which brought him unpredictable danger.

"Shou'er..." The emperor burst into tears. He did not dare to agree to the queen because he didn't know whether he could protect the Fu family. He always felt a little uneasy about the fake edict. Who is Cao Chong? He is a child prodigy. Can he not see the authenticity of the edict? Even if he is loyal, he can still take care of his emperor's face. But can he go against the prime minister? It is no longer easy to not involve him. It seems unlikely to let him let the Fu family go.

"Your Majesty..." The queen didn't hear the emperor's promise for a long time, and her heart was chilling. She raised her head and looked at the same tearful emperor with her dim eyes, begging: "Your Majesty, my mother is the eldest princess of Emperor Xiaohuan and the righteous royal bloodline. Can't she keep a descendant? My young emperor Fulang, but she is underage yet. Can't Your Majesty give me a grace to serve Your Majesty for twenty years? Is there a hundred people in my family still unsatisfied?"

"Shou'er..." The emperor gritted his teeth and pulled the queen hard: "I... do my best, do my best."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The queen twitched her shoulders and gradually stopped crying. She walked to the side of the piano, reached out to lift the brocade cover on the piano, and wiped the slender fingers over the piano. A few pleasant tinging sounds came, and the emperor was refreshed. He raised his head to look at the queen, and the queen was also looking at him. The tears on her face had been wiped away, but her eyes were still red and swollen. The corners of her mouth that had been fascinated by the emperor were slightly raised, revealing a sweet smile, and asked softly: "Your Majesty, I am about to travel far, and I don't know when I will be able to reunite with Your Majesty. I dare to ask Your Majesty to play a song with you to comfort me for these few hours."

The emperor was stunned for a moment. The two of them played together was the happiest thing for their husband and wife. At that time, they could survive such a difficult day, and the sound of the piano played together was also a great contribution. Even when it was difficult, the two of them sat side by side in front of the piano, tacitly fiddling the strings, which always made the two uneasy hearts feel a little comfort and felt a little warmth in this ruthless world, but now, it can only make people feel a sense of sadness.

"Shou'er..." The emperor choked and could not move his body.

"Your Majesty..." The queen bowed slightly and sent an invitation to the emperor again.

The emperor forced himself to move to the queen, stretched out his arm and shook it up, moved his sleeves upwards, and pressed the long fingers on the strings. The fingers that used to be flexible can not move for a long time. The queen looked at him quietly, and the calmness in her blood-stained eyes was pity. At this moment, the person who was sitting in front of her was not an emperor, but a weak man who was as ordinary as ordinary as ordinary as her husband, and a husband who was too weak to protect her.

"Your Majesty..." The queen called out softly again, with a long tail sound, with a hint of tremolo. She reached out and took the emperor's twitching hands away from the piano, turned around and sighed, and her fingers squirted with a sudden pluck of strings. Then, a sound of piano with no elegance was leaked out from her fiercely swinging hands, like a serpent of swords and halberds, a whistling iron cavalry, and a whistling of the north wind.

"The wind blows and the clouds fly..." The queen's slightly hoarse voice sounded even more awesome. She didn't care about the beauty of the sound of the sound of the music at all, and didn't care about playing with the sound of the piano. She just used all her strength to roar with the greatest sound. The hoarse voice echoed in the not-high hall, with a hint of determination and a hint of tragic.

"Queen..." The emperor could no longer hold it back. He turned around suddenly, hugged the queen in his arms, buried his face in the queen's chest, and hugged the queen desperately, as if he wanted to hug her tightly in his arms and never let go.

"Your Majesty, remember, you are the descendant of Emperor Gao, and you are the emperor of the great man. No matter how hard or difficult it is, you cannot give up..." The queen pushed the emperor away with her bloody hands, her eyebrows were raised, her almond eyes were wide open, and she looked down at the emperor and shouted angrily: "You must remember..."

"I remember." The emperor burst into tears: "I remember, I remember it for my husband..."
Chapter completed!