The morning light sprinkled the Jinshui River.

The surface of the river has been frozen, like a huge bronze mirror, reflecting a golden light. It had snowed last night, and the willow branches on the bank of the river were covered with ice and snowflakes, as if draped in a silver scarf. This is the Kaifeng Mansion in the winter of the first year of Yuanfu, under the ice and snow, it still reveals that grace and luxury.

When the melodious bell of Daxiangguo Temple came, in the Cide Palace in the imperial city, the 53-year-old Empress Dowager Xiang had already finished breakfast and walked in the courtyard accompanied by two palace maids who looked as charming as flowers.

The Queen Mother has been blessed since a few years ago, and she has become fat, but her body is getting weaker and weaker, and she always feels chest tightness and shortness of breath. I called the Hanlin medical officer to take a look, and said that the liver was on fire, the phlegm was turbid, and the qi and yin were deficient. prescribed medicine, and asked the old lady to move around more, don't sit all day long.

So Empress Dowager Xiang developed a good habit of getting up every morning for a walk. However, in the Empress Dowager Xiang's own opinion, her problems are not of much use at all by walking and taking Chinese medicine...... Because this problem is what makes Zhao Xu, the faint monarch of the current Great Song Dynasty, and Zhang Xuan, the traitor who dominates the dynasty, angry.

As a woman from the wealthy Xiang family (and Pan Qiaolian are fellow villagers), Empress Dowager Xiang is naturally a supporter of the old party. Moreover, Empress Dowager Gao (Empress Yingzong), who put her on the throne of empress, was the leader of the old party, and after the death of Emperor Shenzong, she became the empress dowager of the dynasty, abolished the new law, and reused the old party. After the death of Empress Dowager Gao, Empress Dowager Xiang succeeded her as the general backstage of the old party figures.

However, what she didn't expect was that Zhao Xu, who had always been frail and sickly and looked a little cowardly, dared to overturn the policy of the Empress Dowager Gao, reactivate the new party, restore the new law, and use troops for many years, and almost defeated the western thieves after being pro-government...... Well, of course it's a good thing to defeat the Western Thieves, but the Liao Kingdom in the north is willing to watch the Western Thieves collapse?

Surely it can't be! At that time, the 400,000 palace soldiers of Daliao and 1.2 million Jingzhou soldiers will sweep south along the Yellow River, and the Great Song Dynasty will be destroyed!

The most hateful thing is that Zhao Xu, the faint monarch, was still instigated by the treacherous minister Zhang Xuan, regardless of the resolute opposition of the queen mother, deposed the virtuous and virtuous Empress Meng, and also set up the Liu family, who was humble and beautiful, but did not abide by the courtesy of the concubine.

The current Great Song Dynasty really has a demon queen inside, a traitorous outside, a new law to harm the people, and a reckless sword soldier on the frontier. In the long run, the country will not be a country.

However, there is still hope for Da Song to get back on track, and it is not small...... The mediocre official Zhao Xu was already seriously ill. The diagnosis of the Hanlin medical officer was "indulgence in internal injury, exhaustion of qi and injury, involving the spleen and kidneys, causing spleen deficiency and loss of luck, and kidney blockage" (probably chronic nephritis or something). In short, if you want to die young, you don't know how long you can survive now?

And Zhao Xu now has no son to inherit the throne, and he does not have a nephew. Once he dies, he will inevitably choose an heir from among his brothers. The Empress Dowager Xiang can follow the practice of the Empress Dowager Gao, listen to the government in the court, abolish the new law, and sweep away the traitors.

Among Zhao Xu's younger brothers, the Empress Dowager Xiang is undoubtedly the eleventh son of Shenzong, Duan Wang Zhao Ji.

This Duan Wang is not only talented, but also very handsome, and his body is even stronger, not like the prince of the Zhao family. If he is allowed to continue the unification, he will definitely not have to worry about the early death of the official family and the inability to give birth to a son to inherit the unification - this is not the opinion of the Empress Dowager alone, but the unanimous determination of the nobles and wealthy families of Kaifeng Mansion.

Speaking of which, this is really because Zhao Ji is too good. In the words of the evaluation of later generations, it is "everything can be done, but you can't be a king's ear!" ”

But now who would have thought that a prince who can do everything alone would not be an emperor?

There was a rush of footsteps, and then I saw an elderly fat eunuch in a scarlet robe, with a whisk in his hand, and a mink on his head, trotting all the way into the courtyard.

This eunuch's surname is Pang, his name is wide, he is a member of the Inner Nei Provincial Guard, and he is the Inner East Gate Division, and the rank official is the Gongwei doctor, which belongs to the high grade among the eunuchs, because of his age, he is a little out of breath after running all the way. The Empress Dowager Xiang laughed when she saw him fat and panting: "Fatty, see that you are panting, take a breath first, and say something slowly." ”

"Fat" is Pang Kuan's nickname, he is a native of the Daimyo Mansion, and he has been serving her since he married Zhao Ji, who was still King Ying, when he beat the Queen Mother. At that time, Pang Kuan was still a child, and because he was chubby, everyone called him fat. But now only Empress Dowager Xiang still calls him that.

The old "fat man" gasped, and his fat face was full of smiles, and he first saluted the Queen Mother, and then said with a smile: "Queen Mother, the two observations are here, and they are waiting at the inner east gate." ”

The inner east gate is a particularly important gate in the palace, which is the main passage connecting the inner middle and outer halls, and is also the passage for the inner and outer women to enter the inner and outer halls to meet the queen mother. If there is a situation where the curtain is lowered to listen to the government, the place where the queen mother and the ruling ministers discuss the government is also near the inner east gate.

Therefore, in the court of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was an Inner East Gate Division, which was subordinate to the Inner Nei Province, and there were usually two officials, one of whom must be the empress dowager's henchman. This Pang Kuan, who was called "fat" by the Empress Dowager Xiang, was one of the two officials in the Inner East Division.

And the two observations he mentioned were Xiang Zongliang and Xiang Zonghui, the brothers of the Empress Dowager. Because the Northern Song Dynasty had a political tradition of suppressing nobles and relatives, the Xiang brothers, who were relatives, could only be nominal officials and had no real power. So these two are now one of the Lizhou observer envoys, and the other is the Xiangzhou observer envoys, both of whom are the official of the five products, but they have no real positions, live in Kaifeng Mansion to eat, drink and have fun, and often enter the palace to visit the queen mother.

However, they could not go to Cide Palace to visit the Queen Mother, and could only meet the Queen Mother in the small hall near the inner east gate.

"Both of them are here?" Xiang Empress Dowager smiled, "There must be something, right?" Fatty, tell them to wait at Zishantang. ”

"Whoa."

Pang Kuan answered, turned around and was about to run to the inner east gate, but was stopped by the Queen Mother.

"Fatty, go slowly...... We're getting older, but we can't be the same as before. ”

"Empress Dowager Xie, just go slowly."

Pang Fat'er slowed down and went slowly, and the Queen Mother smiled and instructed left and right: "Swing the Zishan Hall." ”

……

Zishantang is a small hall on the side of the east gate, if the Great Song Dynasty is now the Queen Mother's Dynasty, then this is the place where the Queen Mother received Zaizhi. However, now the Great Song Dynasty is still the official Zhao Xu at the helm, and Zishantang is the place where the queen mother, the queen and the inner wives meet their relatives.

The places where painters like Wu Haogu gave portraits to the queen mother, queens and women sometimes put them in Zishantang.

And taking pictures of the women in the court is more troublesome than painting the emperor and the prince, and you need to be familiar with a lot of red tape. This is also the reason why Wu Haogu has not seen the Empress Dowager Xiang until now - he asked the Empress Dowager to be recruited into Kaifeng Mansion.

However, Wu Haogu's temporary inability to meet the Queen Mother does not prevent his works from entering the palace, and today's two observations of the Xiang family are entrusted by others to bring two Wu Haogu's works to the Queen Mother.

It's all portrait portraits, and it's all women.

One is "Queen Cai's Lady", and the other is "Pan Suer's Smile". The former is okay, although it is really painted, it is just a traditional gongbi painting. And the latter made the Queen Mother Xiang dazzled when she saw it for the first time, and regarded Pan Suer on the painting as a real person.

"Whose girl, how did you run to Zishantang......" The Queen Mother Xiang entered Zishantang with the support of the palace maid, and did not see the two brothers, but saw a twelve or thirteen-year-old, beautiful girl like a porcelain doll smiling at herself, and after being stunned for a moment, she actually beckoned, "Come here, take a closer look at the mourning family." ”

"Hahaha......"

Then the Empress Dowager heard her two brothers laughing.

"Big brother, second brother, why are you laughing?"

Empress Dowager Xiang looked at her two brothers a little stunned, they are both elderly people, and they have always been more serious, they should not "lose their manners before driving".

Xiang Jia is not a real nobleman, but a scholarly family. The ancestor Xiang Yu was just a small civil official when the Great Song Dynasty was founded, and he was not considered a hero.

And Xiang Minzhong, who made a career in the Xiang family, was a jinshi in the Taizong period, and the later descendants of the Xiang family also took the route of studying and becoming officials, not necessarily Jinshi, but must be a scholar.

However, Xiang Zongliang and Xiang Zonghui were "burdened" by the Empress Dowager Xiang and lost the opportunity to advance in the imperial examination, so they could only be happy relatives for the rest of their lives. It is precisely for this reason that the Empress Dowager Xiang said when she was choosing a concubine for the sons of Shenzong: Xiang clan should not be selected as a woman.

"Eldest sister, you are dazzled, there is no one's daughter here, only a painting."

Xiang Zonghui, the younger brother of the Empress Dowager and the Xiangzhou observation envoy, explained to his sister with a smile at this time.

"Painting?"

The old lady looked at it again, as if it was really a painting in a wooden frame.

"Is it really a painting?" Xiang took two steps forward to the Queen Mother, and it was finally confirmed. "That's true, isn't it? The painting is even better than that, that Wu Haogu. ”

"Eldest sister, this painting is an ancient painting by Wu Hao." Xiang Zongliang, the observer of Lizhou, said with a smile, "It's really vivid, when Zifa (Xiang Zonghui) and I first saw it, we thought we had seen a real person." ”

Xiang asked the Queen Mother again: "Who is this child?" ”

"She is the Pan family, the daughter of Enzhou Thorn Shi, the sister of the horse master, Xingqi, and the small character Su'er."

"How old are you?" The Queen Mother asked again.

"Twelve, soon thirteen."

"It's too small, it's a bit small for King Duan, but you can keep it for King Yue, and this painting will be sent to King Yue's mansion." Empress Dowager Xiang frowned, and then turned her gaze to another picture, on which was a handsome woman holding a scroll, looking very likable, about fourteen or fifteen years old, "Who is she?" Is she also the daughter of the Pan family? ”

"No, he belongs to the royal family."

"That Wang?"

"The Sanhuai Wang family is the daughter of the Texas Thorn Wang Zao."