Chapter 367: The emperor was furious after hearing the news
Before the emperor had time to go to the morning court, Shang Qiyan hurried in dragging his gouty leg.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty..." Shang Qiyan fell to his knees on the ground with a plop, not daring to raise his head.
"What's going on? Why are you so rude?" The emperor frowned and looked at Shang Qiyan in confusion.
He has been serving him for thirty years, and he has rarely been so flustered.
Even the death of the late emperor had not yet reached this point.
"Your Majesty, something happened! The Sixth Prince just entered the palace to report. They were ambushed when they were escorting the statue to Qingyang Mountain, and there were... heavy casualties." Shang Qi said in a sad tone.
"What?! Who is so bold?!" The emperor was very angry after hearing this, "Where is the sixth prince? Let him come in!"
"The Sixth Prince was covered in blood. He went to the side hall to wash himself and change himself for fear of alarming His Majesty." Shang Qiyan said, "I will come later."
When the sixth prince came to the emperor, the ends of his hair were still wet. The clothes he changed into belonged to someone else and they were somewhat inappropriate.
The left arm was injured and was bandaged with white cloth, showing bright red blood.
Also coming in with him was Qingque's disciple Lang Yue.
Lang Yue was not injured, but she was frightened at first sight, and her face turned pale.
"You don't have to kneel down, tell me what's going on!" the emperor said.
"Reporting to the Emperor Father, a group of us received the secret order and put the statue of Laojun in the carriage to return to the capital. Tonight, we were ambushed when passing through Qingyang Ridge. The group of people first fired cold arrows at us, and then rushed up.
The number of people fighting was several times that of ours.
I am an enemy in the dark, and the sudden incident has put us at a disadvantage. In desperation, I had no choice but to ask loudly, who is the other party? Why is he so bold to murder the prince and the court official?
The other party stopped as soon as he heard this, and then quickly fled.
We lit the torch and took a look, and we saw dead bodies lying on the ground, and some of them were seriously injured."
"Where are Xianzhong and Xianqing?" the emperor asked.
The sixth prince lowered his head and choked with sobs: "Both brothers... unfortunately died in the line of duty..."
"This... how should I explain this to my uncle?!" The emperor clenched his fists and pounded the table hard, "Go and investigate! Investigate it for me! Who is the mastermind behind this?!"
"Your Majesty, there are also casualties on the other side, but we all recognize those people." The sixth prince raised his head, with a look of fear and pain, "They are also palace guards..."
The emperor never expected that it would be like this, and he was stunned for a long time, unable to recover.
No one on the side dared to say anything and could only wait quietly.
After a long time, the emperor took a breath.
He said: "Call Ming'er, and then also invite Taoist Master Qingque."
It was night, Yu Guming was on duty in the palace, and soon came to the emperor.
"Ming'er, you are the person I trust most. Now follow the Sixth Prince out of the palace, bring more people, and go to Qingyang Mountain to find out the matter for me." The emperor said to Yu Guming.
"According to the order." Yu Guming never talks much, but he does things neatly and reliably.
After he and the Sixth Prince left, it took a while before Qingque arrived.
"Your Majesty, what are your orders for me to call Pindao here?" Qingque always looked like he was in a fairy-like manner.
"Taoist Priest, the person escorting the statue of Laojun was robbed and killed on the way. I want to ask you, is this a serious crime?" The emperor was more concerned about the impact of this incident on himself at this time.
"Did anyone among them leak the news?" Qingque asked, "Pindao has long said that this matter must be hidden from both human eyes and ears, as well as ghosts and gods."
"The matter has already happened, and I have sent people to investigate. Then my disaster..."
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, someone has already blocked this disaster for you." Qingque said, "Originally, I wanted to secretly send the statue to the capital for a ritual ceremony. But I didn't expect that someone would still die, so that's all I can do.
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When the emperor heard that nothing happened to him, he couldn't help but feel relieved.
Then he said: "It's a pity that the two sons of the Yao family were killed, and there were many guards. Please trouble the Taoist priest to set up a dojo for them, so that they can be saved!"
Before dawn, the queen had already woken up.
In fact, she didn't sleep much that night.
I was just waiting for the palace door to open and Liang Jing to return to the palace.
But after waiting until daybreak and not seeing Liang Jing's shadow, the queen's eyelids couldn't help but twitch.
Liang Jing has been by her side for so many years and has always been reliable in his work.
Before he left, he said that he would definitely return to the palace at dawn.
The maid brought the bird's nest porridge, how could the Queen have the heart to eat it?
"Your Majesty, the servants will help you dress up! After a while, the ladies from each palace will come over to pay their respects." Du Juan accompanied Xin and advised her softly.
They all saw that the queen was worried, but they also knew not to ask random questions.
"Don't make it too complicated." The queen said calmly.
"The Queen, your Majesty is here!" Liang Xiao hurried in, and the Queen's hair was only half combed.
"Didn't Your Majesty go to the morning court?" The queen felt surprised.
"No," Liang Xiao shook his head, "Looking at His Majesty's expression, it seems..."
Before Liang Xiao finished speaking, the emperor had already come in, his face as heavy as water.
The queen didn't care about anything else, and hurriedly stepped forward to welcome you and asked with a smile: "I wish to greet your majesty. I didn't know that your majesty was coming. I didn't have time to greet you. Please forgive me."
"No need to salute, everyone else can go out! I have something to ask you." The emperor sat down but did not let the queen sit.
The queen became more and more uneasy, but she still pretended to be ignorant and asked: "I wonder if your majesty has anything to ask my concubine?"
"I ask you, where has Liang Jing gone?" The emperor looked at the queen, her eyes motionless, like two nails.
"Liang Jing? He...he went out of the palace to do business." At this time, the queen's heart was in a state of confusion, wondering if Liang Jing had been caught by the emperor's people?
"What did he do when he left the palace?" the emperor continued to ask.
"He got news that someone was going to be harmful to Your Majesty, so he went out of the palace to investigate." The queen did not directly tell Qingque, after all, the situation at hand was still unclear.
"Huh! Someone wants to do something bad to me..." The emperor sneered, seeming to be amused by this sentence. "Your news is really accurate!"
"Your Majesty," the queen walked to the emperor and knelt down, "what happened? Can you tell me?"
"It's okay to tell you, sooner or later you will know." The emperor said, "A few days ago, I issued a secret order, asking the Sixth Prince and the two brothers of the Yao family to lead dozens of guards to escort the statue of Laojun back to the capital.
This matter was originally extremely secretive, but when these people walked to Qingyang Mountain, they were ambushed. After a fight, there were many casualties, and the sixth prince returned to the palace to report the news.
I ordered people to follow him to Qingyang Ridge to investigate, and found out that the people who did it were actually Liang Jing's men!"
"No... no, how is this possible?" The queen was completely panicked, "How could he lead people to assassinate people who work for the emperor? What's more, among these people are my two nephews."
"That's right, Queen." The Emperor actually knew that the Queen must have fallen into a trap, "But why did you let Liang Jing kill people behind my back?"
The emperor's meaning was obvious. No matter what the queen's original intention was, the things she did without telling him were enough to show that she had selfish motives.