Yandu, Shangyuan Festival.

This year is the 16th year of Hongde in the Chen Kingdom and the 3rd year of Zhaowu in the Northern Qi Dynasty.

More than seventy years have passed, and Northern Qi has become a relatively stable regime.

Because it is stable, Yandu will naturally gradually become prosperous and lively.

In fact, as early as the time of Emperor Yongping, the population of Yandu exceeded that of Jiankang, and it is one of the few megacities with a population of one million in this land.

The political power is relatively stable, so it is natural to celebrate the Lantern Festival. After all, there are relatively many Han people in this city.

During the Lantern Festival in previous years, Yandu was as lively as Jiankang.

However, this year's Lantern Festival in Yandu, although there is still a lantern festival, seems to be a little more gloomy than in previous years.

The dignitaries no longer go out to celebrate this festival.

Because Shandong was lost, Da Qi's army was defeated in Shandong. Only less than 50,000 people out of more than 100,000 people escaped and retreated back to the north.

Your Majesty, the thunder is furious.

At this moment, neither the Han ministers nor the superior ministers dared to go out to laugh and laugh again. If the superiors found out, they would become the emperor's punching bag if they were not careful.

especially…

Now Emperor Zhaowu has a bad temper. In the more than two years since he took the throne, many officials have died at the hands of this new king.

And the brothers who competed with him for the heirloom also died of sudden illness one by one, and almost few survived.

In this environment, the atmosphere in Yandu City became a little quiet, as if the young man named Shen from the south had cast a layer of gray fog over this big city.

In this atmosphere, the Lantern Festival passed quickly.

And just three or four days after the Shangyuan Festival, in some remote teahouses in Yandu City, people began to spread the story of the Battle of Shandong.

Some people say that Zhou Yuanlang, the imperial envoy sent by the imperial court at that time, had corresponded with Shen Yi, the chief general of Nanchen, when he was in Jinan.

This is a fact.

After Shen Yi captured Yanzhou, Zhou Yuanlang did write to him, and Shen Yi also replied to him.

The general meaning of Zhou Yuanlang's letter to Shen Yi was that he requested peace talks, which meant that Shen Yi should fight until Yanzhou, and then the two sides could sit down and have a good talk.

Shen Yi's reply to Zhou Yuanlang was to call and discuss the matter at the edge of the Yellow River.

In fact, Mr. Shen did not fulfill his promise, because after he captured Jinan City, the Huai'an Army successively regained the entire territory of Shandong, not only reaching the Yellow River.

However, the original letter from Zhou Yuanlang to Shen Yi had been burned by Shen Yi.

There is no original document, which means that no one can tell clearly what was written in this letter, including the two parties involved, Shen and Zhou.

Because there will always be people who think you are lying.

Under such circumstances, no matter what rumors there were, Zhou Yuanlang had no way to refute them.

As for Shen Yi's reply letter, even if Zhou Yuanlang saved it, it would not be of much significance.

The letter said that we could talk after we hit the Yellow River.

Jinan happened to be near the Yellow River. One year after this letter, Jinan was captured by the Huai'an army. Who knows if this was a "secret code" between the two people?

Therefore, this costless rumor spread wildly in Yandu in just two days.

On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, when Zhou Yuanlang, who was "unemployed" at home, was still reading in the sun in his backyard, a sturdy young man strode in, walked straight to Zhou Yuanlang, looked at Zhou Yuanlang who was flipping through the book, and

The sturdy young man frowned.

"When is it! Do you still have time to read here?"

When Zhou Yuanlang heard this, he raised his head and looked at the strong man, then put the book aside, stood up and saluted: "Brother."

Zhou Yuanlang ranked third among his peers in the family. Those above him were Zhou Yuanchui and Zhou Yuanhu.

My cousin Zhou Yuanchui has died in the south.

His biological brother Zhou Yuanhu, the eldest son of his father Zhou Shizhong, was also the default heir of the original Zhou family. He worked in the Southern Conquest Army all year round. Later, because he was too stupid, he was driven back to Yandu by Zhou Shizhong, and even worked as a token squatter for a few times.

A month in prison.

At this time, although Zhou Yuanlang was dismissed from his official position, because he knew Emperor Zhaowu, it was not difficult to see the emperor, and he still had some status in the Zhou family.

Although Zhou Yuanhu looked down on this scholar-general younger brother, he did not dare to be too overbearing. He could only say in a low voice: "Do you know that there are rumors everywhere that when you were in Shandong, you had an affair with Shen Yi of the Southern Dynasty?

Exchange private messages!”

"Some people even say that the fall of Shandong was caused by your conspiracy with Shen Qi!"

Zhou Yuanhu looked straight at his biological brother and whispered: "There are still people who say that you collaborate with the enemy and betray the country!"

After Zhou Yuanlang heard this, he finally closed the book in his hand. He stood up, took a deep breath, turned around and left.

Zhou Yuanhu frowned and said, "Where are you going?"

"Change clothes."

Zhou Yuanlang didn't even look back: "Enter the palace."

…………

Half an hour later, Zhou Yuanlang, dressed in new clothes, appeared in the palace.

Although he lost his position, he was after all the number one hero when the emperor ascended the throne. Therefore, even though he was in white, it didn't take long for him to be led by the young eunuch into the palace and saw him handling political affairs in the Xiude Hall.

His Majesty the Emperor.

After entering the Xiude Hall, Zhou Yuanlang respectfully knelt on the ground and touched his head to the ground.

"Common man Zhou Yuanlang, please bow to your Majesty. Long live my Majesty..."

Emperor Zhaowu silently put down the ink pen in his hand, raised his head and looked at the scholar with a general background in front of him, with a somewhat complicated look on his face.

"Sir, please get up."

Until now, no one can deny that Zhou Yuanlang was the one who contributed the most during the ascension of Emperor Zhaowu to the throne. Without him, the person sitting on the throne now would definitely not be Emperor Zhaowu, but King Qi Zhao Li.

Even Emperor Zhaowu himself was grateful to Zhou Yuanlang, otherwise he would not have just imprisoned Tuyuan and not punished Zhou Yuanlang.

Seeing Zhou Yuanlang stand up, Emperor Zhaowu was silent for a while and then said: "Sir, you should be here because of some rumors in Yandufang?"

"yes."

Zhou Yuanlang lowered his head and said: "Your Majesty, there is something very fishy about this matter. Someone must have done it deliberately."

"I have sent people to check."

Emperor Zhaowu looked at Zhou Yuanlang with calm eyes: "There are rumors that Mr. Shen Yi had a private message. Is this true?"

"Not true."

Zhou Yuanlang said categorically: "Your Majesty, I did have correspondence with Shen Qi, but it was by no means a private letter, but a public letter."

"At that time, the Huai'an army occupied Yanzhou. In order to hold back the Huai'an army, I could only use expediency and pretended to have peace talks with Shen Qi. The purpose was to prevent the Huai'an army from advancing northward."

He thought for a while, lowered his head and said: "Moreover, this matter did not happen last year, but happened in the first year of Zhaowu. Now that it is brought out and talked about, it must be someone who has done it deliberately!"

Emperor Zhaowu was silent for a while, his eyes dark: "Sir, he said that in order to delay the Huai'an army's march northward, one year later, my king's division lost the six prefectures of Shandong and withdrew from Shandong in embarrassment."

Zhou Yuanlang said quickly: "Your Majesty, it is because the Huai'an army was treacherous and kidnapped the two princesses. I am eager to wait for the savior. Therefore, therefore..."

Emperor Zhaowu said expressionlessly: "Where are the two princesses?"

Hearing these words, Zhou Yuanlang's heart skipped a beat and he felt cold all over.

He lowered his head and did not dare to say a word.

Emperor Zhaowu shook his head slightly and said: "Sir, the people of the Purity Department are not idle. If anyone spreads rumors, I will send someone to check."

Zhou Yuanlang knelt on the ground, kowtowed and said: "Your Majesty, the most important thing now is not to find out who is spreading rumors, but to cut off all rumors immediately."

He kowtowed and said: "Now the war in the south is not going well. Many Shang clan members and the people of Yandu are very dissatisfied with the war, especially the Shang clan people."

He gritted his teeth and said, "If it continues to spread, the falsehood will become true..."

Nowadays, there is indeed a lot of resentment within Zhenren Zhu Li.

Many Zhu Li Zhenren complained that the generals employed by the imperial court were incompetent.

It's just that the previous commander-in-chief of Shandong was Tu Yuan, who was also a real Zhu Li, so these so-called Shang clan members had nothing to say.

Now, once this rumor spreads, these Zhu Li masters will have an outlet to vent their grievances.

This outlet was Zhou Yuanlang.

At that time, it was just as he said.

What was fake also became real.

Zhou Yuanlang kept kowtowing, and soon his forehead turned red.

"Your Majesty, it is not a pity for a common man to die, but now that the country is facing a national crisis, the most important thing for everyone in the imperial court is to unite as one and the people as one!"

"People of the Shang tribe cannot hate the Han people, and Han people cannot hate the people of the Shang tribe..."

"My father is still in charge of the Forbidden Army. Once rumors spread, it will definitely attract people from the upper clan to attack."
To be continued...