The Privy Council and Chongwen Hall were separated by a palace wall, and when foreign ministers entered the imperial city and then entered Chongwen Hall, they had to pass in front of the Privy Council. Zhao Mingting and Niu Gengru naturally knew that Han Daoxun entered the palace early in the morning to participate in the performance.
Zhao Mingting stepped forward and reported:
"Han Daoxun came to the palace early this morning to participate in the palace. The government bureau sent people to the two cities to purchase supplies for the palace. He often bullied the market and caused public dissatisfaction. Several papers have been handed over to the Yamen of Jingzhao Mansion. He was in a hurry when he entered the palace.
The Internal Affairs Bureau ordered Zhong Yuli to wait in front of His Majesty, so he grabbed Zhong Yuli and started a lawsuit in front of Your Majesty. Your Majesty ordered Zhong Yuli to follow Han Daoxun to Jingzhao Mansion to deal with the matter!"
"It sounds very boring. Is it possible that Chen Xingmo missed something?" Xu Hou asked.
"Chen Xingmo is waiting for His Majesty, and he doesn't dare to leave for a moment. The only thing Han Daoxun came to the palace to discuss was this - when we saw Chen Xingmo just now, we asked him specifically. We should not have missed any news." Niu Gengru stood up at this time and stood up for him.
Zhao Mingting explained.
"Even so, how do you view this matter?" Queen Xu glanced at Niu Gengru and asked calmly.
"If the people in the Internal Affairs Bureau really want to disobey the rules and cause public dissatisfaction, it is possible for Han Daoxun to join the Imperial Palace due to his nature. After all, the Yamen servants of Jingzhao Palace are not qualified to directly enter the imperial city to arrest the criminals." Niu Gengru didn't move.
He said with a voice.
"But we can't rule out that Han Daoxun's move today was intended to have private contact with Zhong Yuli, right?" Queen Xu's eyes became sharper and she stared at Niu Gengru sharply and asked.
Zhao Mingting stood aside quietly, staring at the tips of his boots exposed under the skirt of his official robe. At this moment, he was only responsible for providing information so that Empress Xu and Niu Gengru could make the final decision. He did not participate in the decision-making.
Of course, in Zhao Mingting's view, it was impossible for Niu Gengru not to guess that Han Daoxun had deliberately contacted Zhong Yuli privately when he entered the palace today. However, Niu Gengru was evasive at this time, and deep down in his heart, he probably still couldn't make up his mind to bear the charge of regicide.
Bar?
"It's time to make up your mind!" Empress Xu did not get entangled with Niu Gengru, and reached out to pick a flower bone from the plum branch in front of her, and then gently flicked it to the foot of the courtyard wall.
"Han Daoxun was transferred to the capital for a month, but nothing happened. How can we conclude today that he took Zhong Yuli to Jingzhao Mansion to avoid Chen Xingmo? There are too many things that cannot be explained! As for Zhenyuan Marquis Yang Jian, Deputy Privy Councilor Wen
Mu Qiao, the military commander Wen Bo and his son who were on duty in the palace, and Zhong Yuli were all loyal to His Majesty and held part of the military power. If we could not deal with them first, if they were to notice something unusual, they would most likely raise their troops to attack them.
"When the chaos breaks out in Jinling, we may not be able to control the situation!" Niu Gengru lowered his voice to persuade.
At this time, there were more than 100,000 imperial troops and personal guards stationed inside and outside Jinling City, but they directly controlled less than 20,000 people, including the guards of the Prince's East Palace.
Although Niu Gengru believed that Empress Xu had some arrangements that he could not see through in recent years, he believed more in absolute control of strength.
The remaining Imperial Guards and Guards accounted for 80% of the Jinling garrison. Most of the generals were single-handedly selected by His Majesty. Even if some people would sit on the wall and watch, there were even some generals who were afraid of Shouzhou's strong soldiers and horses, so they would follow his advice and choose to support them.
Niu Gengru was completely unable to predict the reactions of Yang Jian, Yang En, Zhong Yuli, the seemingly old and feeble Wen Muqiao and his son Wen Bo.
Shouzhou and Chuzhou are constraining each other, and they have to guard against Liang Jun stationed in Caizhou. There is no way to mobilize Shouzhou troops in advance. He does not advocate taking action now. In addition to not wanting to bear the eternal crime of regicide, he does not dare to try easily. In view of the risk of backlash brought about by regicide, he hoped that His Majesty would "get seriously ill day by day" and then "sickly die" one day, so that the Crown Prince could legitimately ascend the throne and succeed to the throne.
"Although there are many things that are unclear and cannot be fully explained, I have followed His Majesty through thick and thin over the years and I have blocked many open and secret arrows. You have to believe in my strong intuition as a woman,"
Empress Xu seemed to feel a hint of chill. She clutched her brocade robe tightly and curled up slightly, but she revealed an even fiercer murderous aura.
"Regardless of whether Han Daoxun has discovered the truth about Shen He's death, but with the current turbulent situation in Jinling, Han Qian, as Jing Zhaoyin, has too many things to do and can do. How can he use his limited energy Wasting it on trivial matters? It would be normal if he consulted the government bureau while reporting other matters. How could he bother His Majesty with such trivial matters? Besides, don’t think that you are If something is kept secret, you can really hide it from the outside. Think about it, your Majesty, he spent his whole life in the military, without any intuition about dangerous murderous functions, and no understanding of his own physical condition? Shen He returned from Tanzhou and died of illness. Not only did he Han Daoxun was transferred to Beijing as Jingzhao Yin and ordered Zhong Yuli to serve him at all times. He should have been alert at that time. But today for such a trivial matter, he ordered Zhong Yuli, who was usually favored and trusted, to follow Han Daoxun to Jingzhao Mansion. How can it be normal to be trained and suffer this kind of grievance? If you really want to wait until you understand everything and think it through before taking action, I am afraid that the second and third brothers will be on the verge of an attack."
Niu Gengru's face was pale. Although he had thought about taking a step thousands of times before, he didn't expect that when he really made up his mind, his hands and feet couldn't help but tremble slightly.
…………
…………
In the palace city, Cishou Palace and Anning Palace are the farthest apart, and can even be said to be the two most distant buildings.
However, when you climb up the side wall of the west courtyard of Cishou Palace and pass through the eaves of the lower part of the majestic Chonghua Palace, you can just see the corner of the corridor leading in and out of Anning Palace. No one thought that you could observe the movements of Anning Palace from Cishou Palace. An excellent corner.
Chun Shisanniang put away the bronze telescope that Fei Laozi had begged from Han Qian, walked down the wooden stairs, and whispered, "The man from Anning Palace suddenly summoned Niu Gengru and Zhao Mingting into the palace today. Do you know what conspiracy they are discussing?"
As soon as they learned that Han Daoxun had been transferred to Jinling to serve as Jingzhao Yin, Chun Shisanniang and Yao Xishui rushed back to Jinling first. At this time, they were serving as chamberlains and the adopted daughters of Zhang Ping, the prime minister of Prince Tan, and were conquered by the imperial concubine. As a palace maid, she was allowed to enter and exit the palace.
In the previous dynasty, there was a precedent for the daughters of conquest ministers to enter the palace and serve as palace officials.
Now that the Third Prince is gaining momentum, the concubine follows the precedent and transfers several trusted female officials from Prince Tan's Mansion to serve around her in the name of conquest, and no one will stop her.
In addition to Chun Shisanniang, Yao Xishui and Madam Heisha, who was hiding in the palace as the Cishou Palace envoy, were standing in front of the pavilion with the concubine. They all frowned slightly when they heard what Chun Shisanniang had said about the situation they had observed. , guessing the purpose of Empress Xu suddenly summoning Niu Gengru and Zhao Mingting to Anning Palace today.
Although Queen Xu is different from other concubines in the harem, as the mother of a country, she and the Xu family have made great achievements during the founding of Chu, and have the privilege of summoning ministers in the palace, but even if it is to set rules for other concubines
, it was extremely rare for Empress Xu to directly summon ministers to the palace to discuss matters.
Anyway, there are a large number of direct descendants from the Xu family in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, so it is convenient for Empress Xu to randomly send a direct descendant to deliver the news, but there is no risk that the news conveyed will fall into the ears of others.
"Han Daoxun went into the palace early this morning to take a look at the Internal Affairs Bureau, and then took Zhong Yuli to Jingzhao Mansion to argue. Is it related to the sudden summons of Niu Gengru by the surname Xu, and Zhao Mingting's entry into Anning Palace?" asked Mrs. Shifei Wang.
There were many eunuchs serving in Chongwen Palace, so Han Daoxun's entry into the palace early in the morning was no longer a secret in the palace.
Seeing Yao Xishui, Chun Shisanniang couldn't answer, and the imperial concubine asked anxiously: "Tell me again, what are the thoughts of Han Daoxun, Han Qian and his son?"
The imperial concubine was favored at the age of sixteen and gave birth to a prince at the age of seventeen. Now, seventeen years have passed and she is only thirty-four years old, at the age when a woman is most beautiful. However, she is dressed solemnly and has been in peace in the palace for many years.
Due to the suppression of the palace, my heart is gloomy, and my face is not as radiant as it should be, but looks a bit cold and gloomy.
Zhao Wuji led fifty troops to Jinling on the eve of the eve. Yao Xishui got the news as soon as possible in Jinling. He speculated that it was Han Qian who was sent to Shu as an envoy. He made such an arrangement after learning about his father's transfer to Jinling in the capital of Shu.
After all, Yao Xishui and the others knew that Zhao Wuji accompanied Han Qian on his mission to Shu.
However, just like this, they became more and more confused. After careful consideration, a lot of information was contradictory, and it was difficult for her to answer the concubine's questions.
Yao Xishui pondered for a while and said: "Perhaps we need to write a letter to Tanzhou and ask Lord Marquis what is going on. It is very possible that Han Qian is hiding something from us."
When the four girls were thinking hard and had no solution, an old eunuch walked into the backyard of Cishou Palace with a whisk in his hand, and reported to the concubine Wang Fu: "His Royal Highness sent a messenger back to Jinling, and just sent a young eunuch to the palace to deliver a message, saying
His Highness asked him to greet the Empress and bring something important to the Empress..."
Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang looked at each other in confusion, wondering who was back. Is there anything that cannot be written directly in the letter and must be met directly by the concubine?
Is it Chai Jian or Li Chong who has returned from Tanzhou?
The imperial concubine was no better than Empress Xu, and did not have the privilege of summoning ministers directly in the palace.
In addition to making it more convenient for the female family members to come and go, it is not impossible for the imperial concubine to summon the male servants in the palace, but the procedure is extremely troublesome and the chamberlain must be alerted.
"Let's go to His Highness's residence first to see what happened!" Yao Xishui said hesitantly.
"No," the concubine shook her head. She could sense that the current situation was too strange. She could not stay in Cishou Palace for a moment and wait for news. She said to the old eunuch who came to inform him, "You go to Chongwen now."
Please tell your majesty that I am tired of living in the palace and would like to spend two days with Yaoer at Prince Tan’s Mansion. I would like your majesty’s permission..."
