The emperor's eastern tour was a huge procession. After setting out from Chang'an, they headed all the way to Taishan County.
Wherever the team passed, the local people would welcome them with food and drink, just to see the holy face of the Emperor of Han.
In the hearts of the people, the current emperor is a sage monarch unmatched in history.
They don't understand how great it is to wipe out the rebels and unify the world.
They only knew that the current emperor had light taxes and levies, and had established public schools and public libraries so that children from ordinary families could go to school and even become officials.
In addition, he also attached importance to agriculture and issued various subsidy policies. He also sent people out to sea to find sweet potatoes, a magical crop with an astonishing yield per acre, which saved countless people from hunger.
It can be said that the emperor single-handedly created the current prosperous era!
How could the people not love such an emperor?
Liu Xie did not disappoint the people's enthusiasm. Whenever he arrived at a place, he would personally inspect the countryside, bring the prince to talk with the people, visit the families of martyrs, inquire about the local political situation, this year's harvest, etc.
Come from the people and go to the people.
In this way, the eastern tour team stopped and started, and did not arrive in Yecheng until the end of September.
Yecheng, Imperial Palace.
The emperor's carriage slowly stopped in front of the palace gate. Liu Xie and the prince stepped off the dragon chariot. They looked up at the familiar yet unfamiliar palace in front of them, and a complex look flashed in their deep eyes.
At this time, a voice full of emotion came from behind him: "I never thought that one day I would be able to return here with Your Majesty again."
Liu Xie turned around and saw Guo Jia walking up to him supported by Jia Xu, his face looking a little sick and pale.
This journey was quite a burden on Guo Jia's body. After all, the journey was tiring and tiring, but he still persisted.
"yes."
Liu Xie smiled faintly, looked towards the palace again, and said softly: "Thinking back to the past, I was a puppet of Yuan Shao and was trapped in this palace."
"Time flies by, and in a flash, more than ten years have passed. I have ascended to the throne, but Yuan Shao has long since turned into a pile of yellow earth."
"Things have changed and people have changed."
Guo Jia and Jia Xu both had sighing looks on their faces. The time they spent fighting wits and courage with the emperor and Yuan Shao in the imperial palace in Yecheng was an experience they would never forget.
After a moment of sighing, Liu Xie raised his eyebrows and smiled at the two of them, "Fengxiao, Wenhe, are you willing to revisit the old place with me?"
Guo Jia and Jia Xu were immediately cheered up when they heard this, and they said in unison: "We are willing to follow Your Majesty!"
So Liu Xie asked everyone to stop outside the palace, and only took Liu Jue, Guo Jia and Jia Xu into the palace under the protection of several generals including Zhang He.
Although Liu Xie had left Yecheng for a long time, the imperial palace was still not abandoned, and people were sent to repair and maintain it every year.
The imperial palace in Yecheng is naturally incomparable to the Weiyang Palace in Chang'an. The scale alone is more than half smaller, and the other decorations are several levels lower.
But when he returned here, Liu Xie felt particularly comfortable, as if he was back home, everything was so familiar.
"Junyi, do you still remember this place?"
When passing by the garden, Liu Xie stopped, pointed at the pavilion and asked Zhang He with a smile.
Zhang He grinned and said, "Your Majesty, this is the place where I first met Your Majesty. I will never forget it."
He will always remember the day when he met the emperor.
"This is not only the place where you and I first met, but also the place where Fengxiao and I first met."
Liu Xie smiled and raised his chin to Guo Jia, "When I was speaking to you heart to heart, this fellow was hiding in the dark and eavesdropping."
"What's even more infuriating is that this guy came to me a few days later to tell me about this, which made me very panicked."
Guo Jia touched his nose and smiled bitterly: "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just happened to be drinking in the garden."
"If I were to say I was frightened, I would be more frightened by your Majesty. If I had said the wrong thing, your Majesty would have killed me with the dagger in his sleeve."
The emperor's broad-mindedness, courage, and ruthlessness at the time were one of the reasons why he was willing to serve him.
Hearing this, Jia Xu looked at him strangely and said, "So you learned the trick of hiding a dagger in your sleeve from His Majesty."
Guo Jia also used this trick to threaten him.
Liu Xie laughed, shook his head and continued to stride forward, walking around the palace and reminiscing about the past with everyone.
The group finally arrived at the main hall. Liu Xie climbed the steps and came to the dragon throne at the highest point. He reached out and gently stroked the handle of the dragon throne.
The people in the audience couldn't see the expression on Liu Xie's face, they just felt that the emperor's back looked inexplicably desolate and lonely.
"Let's go."
After a long time, Liu Xie turned around and said to the audience: "Let's go out of the city. I want to see an old friend."
Everyone bowed their heads in agreement.
…
Liu Xie asked the eastern tour team and Guo Jia and others to rest in the city, and then he came to the banks of the Wei River with only a few guards.
More than ten years have passed, and the Wei River remains the same.
And Ju Su's tomb is right by the river.
After Ju Su died, Liu Xie ordered that he be buried here with great honor, so that he could be accompanied by the Wei River every day.
Liu Xie carried a pot of wine and walked alone to Ju Shou's grave. He sat down on the ground without caring whether it was dirty or not.
"Gongyu, I haven't seen you for many years. How are you?"
Liu Xie smiled faintly at Ju Shou's tombstone, then put down the wine jar in his hand and filled a glass with wine.
"In fact, I have always felt very sorry for you, because until you died, I was lying to you and never told you the truth."
"Now I can tell you that you have been right all along. I am indeed a fake emperor."
"However, it doesn't matter whether it's true or not now. I have done something that even the real emperor has not done, and I have created the current peaceful and prosperous era."
"If you knew about this in the afterlife, you would be relieved."
Liu Xie muttered to himself, poured the wine in the jar onto the ground, and then filled another jar for himself.
"It was you who brought me to Ye City. It was you who gave me the opportunity to change my fate. It was your one thought that gave the Han Dynasty a future."
"Although you did it unintentionally, I still remember your friendship. I offer you a toast."
Liu Xie raised the wine jar and drank it all, then he exhaled, leaned against the tombstone and looked at the Wei River.
As the sun sets, its afterglow shines on the water, shimmering like broken gold, extremely beautiful.
Liu Xie looked at this scene in a daze.
The tombstone is silent, and the people are silent too.
…
On the other side, Yuan Xi came to the southern suburbs.
At that time, the Yuan family was exterminated, and more than 800 members of the family were beheaded, and their bodies were all buried here.
Later, when Yuan Shao died, Yuan Xi also buried his body here, as well as the body of his mother, Madam Liu.
Yes, his mother had passed away several years ago.
Yuan Xi did not come alone this time. He brought his nine-year-old son with him for the purpose of paying homage.
Yuan Xi first stepped forward to kneel and kowtow, then patted his son Yuan Zhong on the back of the head and said to him: "Zhong'er, come and kowtow to your grandparents and the clansmen."
Yuan Zhong nodded his head, then walked forward and kowtowed to the tombstone meticulously.
Yuan Xi looked at his son's earnest kowtow, a trace of relief flashed in his eyes, and he smiled at him: "Okay, Zhong'er, go play over there first, your father wants to talk to your grandparents alone."
"Yes, father."
Yuan Zhong was very well-behaved and sensible. He stood up, brushed the dirt off his knees, and walked to a nearby place to wait.
Only Yuan Xi was left kneeling in front of the tombstone.
Yuan Xi withdrew his gaze from his son and said to the tombstone in front of him: "Father, mother, and fellow clansmen, I have brought Zhong'er to see you."
"Don't worry. Our Yuan clan is not in decline. I have gathered the remaining members of the Yuan clan in Chang'an City and settled them down."
“They are living well now.”
Yuan Xi began to talk about everything about the Yuan family.
He told her every detail, including how many members of the Yuan family there were, how he would settle them, and how much population the Yuan family had added over the years.
Although the Yuan family was exterminated in the past, some members of the family are still scattered all over the world. Yuan Xi has been committed to gathering them all together over the years.
Because only in this way can the Yuan family have a chance to develop and grow again.
Today, the population of the Yuan family has grown to more than one hundred people, and even Yuan Xi himself has three sons and two daughters.
And Yuan Zhong was his eldest son.
After saying a lot, Yuan Xi was silent for a moment, looked at the name of his father Yuan Shao on the tombstone, and said with red eyes: "Father, I don't hate you now."
"After becoming a father, I realized how difficult it was for you back then."
"I'm sorry, father... I'm so sorry."
Yuan Xi kowtowed deeply in front of the tombstone, his voice choked with sobs and tears streaming down his face.
At that time, he was blinded by jealousy and was instigated by Jia Xu to compete with his third brother Yuan Shang for the throne, which eventually led to the tragedy of the Yuan family.
The root of everything actually lies in him.
But he didn't understand at the time and thought that everything was his father Yuan Shao's fault. It was not until he became a father and the head of the Yuan family that he realized how difficult life for his father was.
Raising his hand to wipe the tears from his face, Yuan Xi continued: "But father... I don't regret anything I have done."
"Your Majesty is wise and powerful. You are no match for him. You were wrong from the beginning."
Having served the emperor for so many years, Yuan Xi was well aware of how terrible the emperor was. Even if he had not launched the mutiny, the emperor would still have found a chance to break free from the control of his father Yuan Shao.
So even though he acted by accident, he saved the Yuan family from complete annihilation and preserved the Yuan family's spark and the hope of revival.
So he has no regrets.
"Father, do you know that I named my eldest son Zhong so that he would remember his loyalty to His Majesty and the court?"
"I, Yuanshi, will never repeat the mistakes you made or the path you have taken. I will lead Yuanshi to new glory."
Yuan Xi raised his head, with only determination left on his face.
He kowtowed three times on the tombstone again, then stood up and left with Yuan Zhong in his hand.
The steps are extremely firm.
Behind him, the tombstones of the Yuan family stood, as if silently watching him go away.
Wherever the team passed, the local people would welcome them with food and drink, just to see the holy face of the Emperor of Han.
In the hearts of the people, the current emperor is a sage monarch unmatched in history.
They don't understand how great it is to wipe out the rebels and unify the world.
They only knew that the current emperor had light taxes and levies, and had established public schools and public libraries so that children from ordinary families could go to school and even become officials.
In addition, he also attached importance to agriculture and issued various subsidy policies. He also sent people out to sea to find sweet potatoes, a magical crop with an astonishing yield per acre, which saved countless people from hunger.
It can be said that the emperor single-handedly created the current prosperous era!
How could the people not love such an emperor?
Liu Xie did not disappoint the people's enthusiasm. Whenever he arrived at a place, he would personally inspect the countryside, bring the prince to talk with the people, visit the families of martyrs, inquire about the local political situation, this year's harvest, etc.
Come from the people and go to the people.
In this way, the eastern tour team stopped and started, and did not arrive in Yecheng until the end of September.
Yecheng, Imperial Palace.
The emperor's carriage slowly stopped in front of the palace gate. Liu Xie and the prince stepped off the dragon chariot. They looked up at the familiar yet unfamiliar palace in front of them, and a complex look flashed in their deep eyes.
At this time, a voice full of emotion came from behind him: "I never thought that one day I would be able to return here with Your Majesty again."
Liu Xie turned around and saw Guo Jia walking up to him supported by Jia Xu, his face looking a little sick and pale.
This journey was quite a burden on Guo Jia's body. After all, the journey was tiring and tiring, but he still persisted.
"yes."
Liu Xie smiled faintly, looked towards the palace again, and said softly: "Thinking back to the past, I was a puppet of Yuan Shao and was trapped in this palace."
"Time flies by, and in a flash, more than ten years have passed. I have ascended to the throne, but Yuan Shao has long since turned into a pile of yellow earth."
"Things have changed and people have changed."
Guo Jia and Jia Xu both had sighing looks on their faces. The time they spent fighting wits and courage with the emperor and Yuan Shao in the imperial palace in Yecheng was an experience they would never forget.
After a moment of sighing, Liu Xie raised his eyebrows and smiled at the two of them, "Fengxiao, Wenhe, are you willing to revisit the old place with me?"
Guo Jia and Jia Xu were immediately cheered up when they heard this, and they said in unison: "We are willing to follow Your Majesty!"
So Liu Xie asked everyone to stop outside the palace, and only took Liu Jue, Guo Jia and Jia Xu into the palace under the protection of several generals including Zhang He.
Although Liu Xie had left Yecheng for a long time, the imperial palace was still not abandoned, and people were sent to repair and maintain it every year.
The imperial palace in Yecheng is naturally incomparable to the Weiyang Palace in Chang'an. The scale alone is more than half smaller, and the other decorations are several levels lower.
But when he returned here, Liu Xie felt particularly comfortable, as if he was back home, everything was so familiar.
"Junyi, do you still remember this place?"
When passing by the garden, Liu Xie stopped, pointed at the pavilion and asked Zhang He with a smile.
Zhang He grinned and said, "Your Majesty, this is the place where I first met Your Majesty. I will never forget it."
He will always remember the day when he met the emperor.
"This is not only the place where you and I first met, but also the place where Fengxiao and I first met."
Liu Xie smiled and raised his chin to Guo Jia, "When I was speaking to you heart to heart, this fellow was hiding in the dark and eavesdropping."
"What's even more infuriating is that this guy came to me a few days later to tell me about this, which made me very panicked."
Guo Jia touched his nose and smiled bitterly: "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just happened to be drinking in the garden."
"If I were to say I was frightened, I would be more frightened by your Majesty. If I had said the wrong thing, your Majesty would have killed me with the dagger in his sleeve."
The emperor's broad-mindedness, courage, and ruthlessness at the time were one of the reasons why he was willing to serve him.
Hearing this, Jia Xu looked at him strangely and said, "So you learned the trick of hiding a dagger in your sleeve from His Majesty."
Guo Jia also used this trick to threaten him.
Liu Xie laughed, shook his head and continued to stride forward, walking around the palace and reminiscing about the past with everyone.
The group finally arrived at the main hall. Liu Xie climbed the steps and came to the dragon throne at the highest point. He reached out and gently stroked the handle of the dragon throne.
The people in the audience couldn't see the expression on Liu Xie's face, they just felt that the emperor's back looked inexplicably desolate and lonely.
"Let's go."
After a long time, Liu Xie turned around and said to the audience: "Let's go out of the city. I want to see an old friend."
Everyone bowed their heads in agreement.
…
Liu Xie asked the eastern tour team and Guo Jia and others to rest in the city, and then he came to the banks of the Wei River with only a few guards.
More than ten years have passed, and the Wei River remains the same.
And Ju Su's tomb is right by the river.
After Ju Su died, Liu Xie ordered that he be buried here with great honor, so that he could be accompanied by the Wei River every day.
Liu Xie carried a pot of wine and walked alone to Ju Shou's grave. He sat down on the ground without caring whether it was dirty or not.
"Gongyu, I haven't seen you for many years. How are you?"
Liu Xie smiled faintly at Ju Shou's tombstone, then put down the wine jar in his hand and filled a glass with wine.
"In fact, I have always felt very sorry for you, because until you died, I was lying to you and never told you the truth."
"Now I can tell you that you have been right all along. I am indeed a fake emperor."
"However, it doesn't matter whether it's true or not now. I have done something that even the real emperor has not done, and I have created the current peaceful and prosperous era."
"If you knew about this in the afterlife, you would be relieved."
Liu Xie muttered to himself, poured the wine in the jar onto the ground, and then filled another jar for himself.
"It was you who brought me to Ye City. It was you who gave me the opportunity to change my fate. It was your one thought that gave the Han Dynasty a future."
"Although you did it unintentionally, I still remember your friendship. I offer you a toast."
Liu Xie raised the wine jar and drank it all, then he exhaled, leaned against the tombstone and looked at the Wei River.
As the sun sets, its afterglow shines on the water, shimmering like broken gold, extremely beautiful.
Liu Xie looked at this scene in a daze.
The tombstone is silent, and the people are silent too.
…
On the other side, Yuan Xi came to the southern suburbs.
At that time, the Yuan family was exterminated, and more than 800 members of the family were beheaded, and their bodies were all buried here.
Later, when Yuan Shao died, Yuan Xi also buried his body here, as well as the body of his mother, Madam Liu.
Yes, his mother had passed away several years ago.
Yuan Xi did not come alone this time. He brought his nine-year-old son with him for the purpose of paying homage.
Yuan Xi first stepped forward to kneel and kowtow, then patted his son Yuan Zhong on the back of the head and said to him: "Zhong'er, come and kowtow to your grandparents and the clansmen."
Yuan Zhong nodded his head, then walked forward and kowtowed to the tombstone meticulously.
Yuan Xi looked at his son's earnest kowtow, a trace of relief flashed in his eyes, and he smiled at him: "Okay, Zhong'er, go play over there first, your father wants to talk to your grandparents alone."
"Yes, father."
Yuan Zhong was very well-behaved and sensible. He stood up, brushed the dirt off his knees, and walked to a nearby place to wait.
Only Yuan Xi was left kneeling in front of the tombstone.
Yuan Xi withdrew his gaze from his son and said to the tombstone in front of him: "Father, mother, and fellow clansmen, I have brought Zhong'er to see you."
"Don't worry. Our Yuan clan is not in decline. I have gathered the remaining members of the Yuan clan in Chang'an City and settled them down."
“They are living well now.”
Yuan Xi began to talk about everything about the Yuan family.
He told her every detail, including how many members of the Yuan family there were, how he would settle them, and how much population the Yuan family had added over the years.
Although the Yuan family was exterminated in the past, some members of the family are still scattered all over the world. Yuan Xi has been committed to gathering them all together over the years.
Because only in this way can the Yuan family have a chance to develop and grow again.
Today, the population of the Yuan family has grown to more than one hundred people, and even Yuan Xi himself has three sons and two daughters.
And Yuan Zhong was his eldest son.
After saying a lot, Yuan Xi was silent for a moment, looked at the name of his father Yuan Shao on the tombstone, and said with red eyes: "Father, I don't hate you now."
"After becoming a father, I realized how difficult it was for you back then."
"I'm sorry, father... I'm so sorry."
Yuan Xi kowtowed deeply in front of the tombstone, his voice choked with sobs and tears streaming down his face.
At that time, he was blinded by jealousy and was instigated by Jia Xu to compete with his third brother Yuan Shang for the throne, which eventually led to the tragedy of the Yuan family.
The root of everything actually lies in him.
But he didn't understand at the time and thought that everything was his father Yuan Shao's fault. It was not until he became a father and the head of the Yuan family that he realized how difficult life for his father was.
Raising his hand to wipe the tears from his face, Yuan Xi continued: "But father... I don't regret anything I have done."
"Your Majesty is wise and powerful. You are no match for him. You were wrong from the beginning."
Having served the emperor for so many years, Yuan Xi was well aware of how terrible the emperor was. Even if he had not launched the mutiny, the emperor would still have found a chance to break free from the control of his father Yuan Shao.
So even though he acted by accident, he saved the Yuan family from complete annihilation and preserved the Yuan family's spark and the hope of revival.
So he has no regrets.
"Father, do you know that I named my eldest son Zhong so that he would remember his loyalty to His Majesty and the court?"
"I, Yuanshi, will never repeat the mistakes you made or the path you have taken. I will lead Yuanshi to new glory."
Yuan Xi raised his head, with only determination left on his face.
He kowtowed three times on the tombstone again, then stood up and left with Yuan Zhong in his hand.
The steps are extremely firm.
Behind him, the tombstones of the Yuan family stood, as if silently watching him go away.
