family?
For Lu Xun, who was now in Longyou, thousands of miles away from Yangzhou, for the past year, the impression of the word "family" had only remained in his dreams at midnight.
Now there is news about my family?
Lu Xun forced himself to suppress his inner excitement and pretended to be calm as he bowed, but his slightly trembling hands betrayed his true feelings.
"I have been away from home for a long time, and I have not received any correspondence since last year." Lu Xun considered his words carefully and asked hesitantly, "I hope Your Majesty can tell me about the situation at home."
Cao Rui picked up the document on the table with his right hand and pretended to hand it to Lu Xun: "This is a letter from Wei Pushe to me, which relays Sun Quan's words. Boyan, read it yourself, I won't repeat it to you."
Even if Lu Xun was a good commander and had many strategies, he couldn't help but feel afraid when he heard the news from home. What's more, he had already "surrendered to the enemy" and Sun Quan had always had a bad temper.
With hesitation in his heart, Lu Xun's movements slowed down a bit.
"Your family is fine. They were just taken to Wuchang by Sun Quan." Cao Rui smiled and handed over the document in his hand: "Bo Yan, don't worry."
After Lu Xun thanked him again, he took the letter and read it carefully twice.
Naturally, there were many things about Luoyang in Wei Zhen's letter, but the emperor was not far in front of him, so Lu Xun had no way of sneaking a peek. He could only read the few sentences about his family over and over again.
"Boyan, you have a younger brother named Lu Mao, right?" Cao Rui asked with a smile, "Sun Quan used the story of Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang as an allusion to promote your brother to be the Minister of Selection of the Wuchang Secretariat."
"What do you think about this?"
When Lu Xun heard the emperor's question, he had almost memorized the text in the letter and presented it to the emperor on the desk.
"I don't know how much your majesty knows about the officials in Wuchang," Lu Xun said tentatively, "The letter from Wei Pushe said that the last person to be appointed as the Minister of the Imperial Academy was Zhang Wen, and now it has been replaced by my younger brother Lu Mao."
Cao Rui took the document and looked at it again. "I remember you mentioned Zhang Wen when we were in Shouchun. He was sent to Chengdu twice as an envoy for Sun Quan, right?"
"That's the case, but there are some extra things. This person was involved in a big case." Lu Xun explained, and then briefly introduced the Ji Yan case in Dongwu.
After hearing what Lu Xun said, Cao Rui sneered, "Is this a major case? I thought Sun Quan was just not good at commanding troops, but I didn't expect that he would be such a bad king."
"Didn't Ji Yan and Zhang Wen change the official selection system for Sun Quan according to his request? But he didn't change it when he encountered opposition from his ministers and generals? And he even killed Ji Yan who was working for him?"
"Wasn't Zhang Wen praised by the officials of Shu? As an envoy, he did not disobey the king's orders. How could he be imprisoned by Sun Quan?"
"It's fine if he's locked up, but he still has the nerve to reinstate him?"
Lu Xun listened quietly to the emperor's ridicule of Sun Quan, and instinctively wanted to explain for Sun Quan, but suddenly thought of his current position.
So no words were spoken.
After Cao Rui sighed at Sun Quan's magnanimity, he seemed to have thought of something and looked at Lu Xun: "Sun Quan treated Zhang Wen like this in the past, so I'm afraid he also used your brother Lu Mao as a pretext."
"Lu Mao is in Wuchang, and you are in Wei. I'm afraid he can only do things according to Sun Quan's instructions, and I'm afraid he dare not disobey in the slightest."
Lu Xun sighed and said, "I think so. However, my wife, Sun, is the daughter of Sun Bofu and the niece of Sun Quan, so she is not in danger of death."
Cao Rui understood the implicit meaning of Lu Xun's words.
When listening to your ministers, you should not only listen to what they say, but also listen to what they don't say.
The document recounted Sun Quan's letter and talked about the three people at once. Lu Mao was granted an official position, and Sun was a relative of the clan. So the only one left was the youngest son Lu Yan, right?
But before asking Lu Yan, Cao Rui seemed to remember something vague in his mind and asked, "Does Boyan have only Lu Yan as his son? Does he have other sons?"
Cao Rui was thinking of Lu Kang in history. But Lu Xun was surprised and said, "Your Majesty, have you heard something? I only have one son born to my wife, Sun, and no other heirs!"
Maybe Lu Xun misunderstood something, and perhaps thought that after he left home, Sun gave birth to another son for him.
Cao Rui knew he had asked the wrong question, so he waved his hand and said with a smile, "That's all I asked."
"After Emperor Wu started his army in Chenliu, in addition to the generals of the Cao family, and the followers of the Xiahou family and the Ding family, he conquered the Central Plains, Hebei, Guanzhong, Qingxu, and many generals surrendered in the army."
"Let's not talk about the distant past. Let's take the Left General Zhang He and Zhang Junyi, and the Generals of Zhenxi Qian Zhao and Qian Zijing for example. These two were once ministers of the Yuan family, but it does not prevent me from promoting them at all."
The emperor was telling the truth, and Lu Xun was aware of the heavy responsibilities of Zhang He and Qian Zhao. Moreover, among the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu, Wei was famous for its tolerance towards surrendered generals.
Zhang Xiu, who once killed Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang and his beloved general Dian Wei, was granted a fief of 2,000 households in the tenth year of Jian'an not long after he defected to Cao's camp, while Xiahou Dun's fiefdom at that time only had 700 households.
Zhang Lu, who lost Hanzhong in the battle, was granted the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households by Cao Cao. Han Zong, the son of Han Dang who died in Wancheng at the beginning of last year, was also granted the title of Marquis of Three Thousand Households.
The great general Cao Zhen now only has three thousand households!
To be honest, Lu Xun was born 20 years later and missed the good time when the world was in chaos. If it were 20 years ago, with his status as the governor of Jingzhou, he could have at least earned 2,000 or 3,000 households. Why was he sent far away to Liangzhou to be a 2,000-stone guard of the Qiang?
As he thought about it, Lu Xun, who was standing opposite the emperor, began to have doubts in his heart.
The emperor first asked his son, and then discussed the examples of Zhang He and Qian Zhao. Was he going to give himself a post-war reward?
You must know that in the process of recovering Longyou, the emperor only mentioned the achievements of Zhang He, Qian Zhao and Guo Huai, and he would talk about others only after the army returned to Luoyang.
Cao Rui did not keep the secret and said to Lu Xun directly: "Bo Yan, you forced Huang Quan to surrender to Wei in Yiling. Do you still remember this?"
Lu Xun smiled awkwardly.
It was indeed because of his fighting that Huang Quan surrendered to Wei. Today, the two of them are ministers in the same palace. Huang Quan once served as a Palace Attendant and is currently serving as a Governor of Yuzhou. He can be said to be Your Majesty's confidant.
Lu Xun bowed and replied: "Governor Huang is indeed an old friend of mine. I naturally know that."
Cao Rui raised his eyes and looked at Lu Xun: "About a year after Governor Huang surrendered to the Wei Dynasty, the late emperor arranged a marriage for him."
"Last spring, when Huang Quan was still in Luoyang, a son was born in the family."
By this time, Lu Xun had probably understood the emperor's intention.
Huang Quan surrendered to Wei and was betrothed to Cao Pi, and his family members who stayed in Chengdu were not punished.
Sun Quan also followed suit and entrusted his younger brother with important tasks.
Then can't the Emperor of Wei imitate the previous emperor?
Lu Xun could endure it.
If he had acted as impulsively as Zhu Huan did in the past, he would have probably committed suicide after waking up from the battlefield. But not only did he not do that, he also accepted the appointment of the Wei Dynasty for the sake of his clan relatives.
With this beginning, it's okay to be tolerant again and again. If the emperor wants to arrange a marriage? Then let him do it.
"Hearing what Your Majesty said, I am truly frightened. I would like to ask Your Majesty for your instructions." Lu Xun bowed and saluted.
Cao Rui chuckled and looked at Lu Xun with burning eyes: "I think Boyan can guess that I want to grant you a marriage. But the choice of this person..."
Apart from the guards, there were only the king and his minister in the hall, and neither of them spoke a word at this moment.
Cao Rui tapped the table with his fingertips and said softly, "I have a younger sister who was named Princess Dongxiang when the previous emperor was alive. She is only twenty years old and still unmarried."
"If Boyan is interested, I, as the eldest brother, will make the decision for her and marry her to Boyan."
After a light laugh, Cao Rui slowly said, "I wonder if Bo Yan is willing?"
This……
Even though Lu Xun was very intelligent, he was obviously panicked after hearing what the emperor said.
What kind of thing is this! The emperor first showed him the situation of his family members who were still in Wu, and then betrothed the princess to him!
Moreover, if this was an ordinary princess of the royal family, it would be fine. Emperor Wu Cao Cao had many concubines and daughters, and they were not worth much.
But Princess Dongxiang is the younger sister of His Majesty! She and His Majesty are both born to Empress Wen Zhaozhen!
This arrangement was too heavy, so heavy that Lu Xun did not dare to respond for a while.
Although Princess Cao Ying of Dongxiang and the current emperor were born of the same mother, Cao Rui himself did not mind it. He even met her twice after he ascended the throne.
But Cao Rui, as the eldest brother and the emperor, could naturally decide on his sister's marriage. Marrying her to Lu Xun was also a good marriage.
"Why, Lu Qing doesn't want to?" Cao Rui pretended to be angry and looked at Lu Xun who was thinking with his head down: "Since she is my sister, do you still need to worry about her appearance? Look up and see what I look like!"
In terms of beauty, Lu Xun has never seen anyone who can compare with Your Majesty in his more than 40 years of life.
Even Zhou Yu, the most handsome man in Jiangdong, his "beauty" was just a combination of his looks and talent.
No matter how handsome Zhou Yu is, how can he be more handsome than Your Majesty? No matter how magnanimous Zhou Yu is, how can he compare with Your Majesty who controls most of the world?
Regardless of the marriage that Your Majesty is referring to, just based on this sentence, Your Majesty is not wrong at all!
It would be inappropriate for Lu Xun to refuse. If he did, it might seem rather flattering. For a moment, he could only humbly decline, "I am a humble subject, and a surrendered minister..."
Cao Rui interrupted Lu Xun's excuse: "It doesn't matter. Everyone knows how Wei treats its surrendered ministers!"
Lu Xun found another excuse: "I am really too old, how can I be worthy of the princess..."
Cao Rui did not want to bring up the imperfect case of Liu Bei marrying Sun Quan's sister, but simply asked with a stern face: "Does Boyan not want to marry me?" (End of this chapter)
