Disappointed, he picked up the piece of paper with the jade pendant pattern on it. As soon as he took a look at it, his expression immediately changed.
He had seen this pattern before.
There are three dark purple plum blossoms of different sizes in the painting, neatly arranged in a straight line, with a plum branch running through the middle. At a rough look, they look like the character "王" full of freehand brushwork.
It is the emblem of the Wang family. Song Huaicai has seen this pattern more than once on the carriage of the Wang family and on the pendants worn by Wang Qiuyu. He even heard Wang Qiuyu mention that the plum blossoms in this emblem are the finest.
Purple jade plum blossoms symbolize the noble integrity of being proud and independent despite the cold and snow, and these are exactly the spirit of the Wang family.
Song Huaicai took the drawing paper and looked at it again and again. A meaningful smile slowly appeared at the corner of his mouth. He put down the drawing paper and picked up the calligraphy and painting again. On it was a poem written by the King of Tianxu himself.
Both the content and the writing style are as rough and rough as cutting with a knife. It can be seen that this person is a dangerous man who is unsatisfied with the status quo and full of wolfish ambitions.
Daring to cooperate with such a man is tantamount to seeking the skin of a tiger. Prime Minister Wang, are you sure you can guarantee that you will not be bitten while taking advantage of him?
Song Huaicai called a confidant in and asked: "I asked you to stare at Prime Minister Wang, what is he doing?"
The man immediately reported to him the results of the following days. It turned out that Wang Qiuyu would travel around to contact people from aristocratic clans whenever he had time these days, especially those who were from aristocratic clans and were officials in the court.
The exchanges were very close, but it was impossible to know exactly what they were discussing.
It didn't take long for Song Huaicai to know what those noble families were planning. Under their promotion, there have been quite a few official changes in the imperial court in recent days. First, the Zhonglang who commanded the palace guards was framed and lost his official position.
After Wang Qiuyu resigned, this position was taken by Wang Qiuyu's son Wang Yu and grandnephew Wang Yun. Then Wang Yun's younger brother Wang Shangguan successively served as the servant of Fengche Duwei and commanded the Hu Yue cavalry of the Imperial Guard. His two sons-in-law were respectively
Replacing the guards of the East and West Palaces, he was in charge of the guards of the entire palace. Even his cousins and relatives also held important positions in the court, forming a huge and intricate network of influence that spread throughout the unparalleled court.
At this moment, Wang Qiuyu can be regarded as the supreme ruler of the Wushuang Dynasty, and the entire Wushuang City has almost become his possession.
Even a fool can guess what Wang Qiuyu will do after making these arrangements.
Xiao Shen slapped his palm on the table and said angrily: "They are planning to completely evade the imperial power!"
Song Huaicai looked solemn: "Your Majesty, their actions are too fast. Even if we want to stop them now, it is too late."
The aristocratic families can stand for hundreds of years in the torrent of history. Even if the dynasty changes and the throne changes, their status will not be affected. From this, we can see how powerful the aristocratic families are. They are closely united as a family unit.
They unite together and put the interests of the family above all else. The accumulation of historical years has given them a profound foundation. Whether it is cultivation, power or wealth, the extent of what they possess makes even the Tianjia royal family look forward to it.
Now, when they were worried that their own interests would be harmed by the Tian family, they worked together to use family power to clean up the connections in the court. Even Song Huaicai had to marvel at such a powerful courage.
It is precisely because of this that he understands better why the emperor is so eager to completely eradicate the power of the family. If such a hidden danger is left, any emperor would feel very insecure.
Xiao Shen stood up, put his hands behind his back, kept walking back and forth, his eyebrows knitted together: "Brother Huang has received the secret message and is on his way back. Before that, what can we do? Mr.
We can't just sit here and let those old guys ride on top of us and show off their power, right?!"
"No, we can't do anything now. What if we really push them into a panic and they jump over the wall to usurp the throne?!"
"How dare they?!" Xiao Shen was so angry that his eyes were bloodshot. "With those old immortals, if they really dared to seek the throne and usurp the throne, they would be drowned in the saliva of the officials and historians! They managed to accumulate so much money.
I don’t want any of the family heritage that came down! In the future, no matter how hard they cover it up, they can’t erase the word ‘traitor’ above their heads!”
"Your Majesty, please don't get excited." Song Huaicai paused, with a helpless look on his face, "When they seek to usurp the throne, they don't necessarily have to put themselves on the throne. They can first select a person with the blood of the Tian family, and then elect him to the throne.
Emperor, this person may be the eldest prince who was sent to the Snowy Land as a hostage, or he may be the prince or prince who was sent to various fiefdoms, or he may even be you..."
After saying the last sentence, before Song Huaicai had time to stop speaking, he heard Xiao Shen curse: "Bah! I will only make puppets for those old immortals when I am full! That's all they can do.
Little abacus, do you really think that no one else can see it? What they want is not a wise emperor, what they want is just an obedient puppet!"
"Your Majesty is wise and can see the secrets at a glance." Song Huaicai cupped his hands towards him and praised him sincerely. Then he changed the subject and added, "But not everyone can be as open-minded and clear-minded as Your Majesty. The throne of the Emperor
, Lord of the Ninth Five Years, even if I don’t need to explain the temptation, I believe you can feel it. Whether it is the eldest prince or other princes and princes, as long as they are given a chance, even if they become puppets, they are willing to seize the opportunity and let them go.
There are definitely not a few people who give it a try."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Shen immediately fell silent.
He grew up in the royal family, so he naturally understood that those brothers would fight for the throne at all costs. He could despise being a puppet, but it was different for others. In the eyes of others, even if he was just a puppet, he was still a capable person.
The emperor's puppet in dragon robe!
Seeing that Xiao Shen finally calmed down, Song Huaicai also breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid that the prince would do something extraordinary because of impulsiveness. It would be terrible if he got into big trouble because of this.
.
Xiao Shen slowly sat back down and asked in a deep voice: "In your opinion, what should we do now?"
"Look at this," Song Huaicai took out an exquisite black brocade bag from his sleeve and gently placed it in front of him. "Your Majesty gave this to me before he left. He said that in case of emergency,
But before he came back, he asked me to hand over this tip bag to you. He said that as long as you see it, you will know what to do."
"Brother Imperial is really powerful. He even expected this situation, and even left the tips bag specially. Come on, let me see what's in it..." Xiao Shen opened the tips bag and took out a piece of paper.
The strip slowly unfolded, revealing the writing inside.
There are not many words, but it took Xiao Shen a long time to read them all.
Song Huaicai asked: "What did your Majesty write?"
Xiao Shen didn't answer. He crumpled the note into a ball and stuffed it into his mouth. He picked up the tea and drank it in one gulp.
Song Huaicai watched helplessly as he swallowed the note. After being surprised, he quickly realized that this meant something he couldn't say, so he closed his mouth knowingly, stood up and left without asking any more questions.
After leading him away, Xiao Shen leaned on the seat and looked up at the beams with a wry smile on his face.
Brother Emperor, Brother Emperor, are you testing me? Or do you believe me too much?
The next day, Wang Qiuyu suddenly came to visit Prince Cheng Xiao Shen. The two talked secretly in the study alone for a whole afternoon. According to what the servants of the palace saw, they both had smiles on their faces when they came out and got along very harmoniously.
The conversation was obviously very pleasant. Afterwards, Prince Cheng enthusiastically asked Wang Qiuyu to stay in the mansion for dinner. Wang Qiuyu readily agreed. The atmosphere between the two at the dinner table was even more harmonious. Their relationship was so good that they wanted to wear a pair of trousers.
By the time Song Huaicai received the news, almost everyone in Wushuang City already knew that Prince Cheng was very close to the clansmen, and some even began to speculate that Prince Cheng might be the next successor to the throne chosen by the clansmen.
In response to this, Song Huaicai's reaction was very calm. He didn't say much, and directly ordered the housekeeper to close the door of his house. From now on, he would never go out unless it was important, thus temporarily isolating these disputes outside the door.
Compared with the calm attitude of Song Yushi, the Empress Dowager in the palace was not so calm. The day after she heard the rumors, she sent someone to summon Xiao Shen to the palace for an audience. However, Xiao Shen did not
Citing physical discomfort as an excuse, he politely declined the Empress Dowager's summons.
The Empress Dowager was very angry about this. She directly called Xiao Shen's biological mother, Princess Duan, in front of her and gave Princess Duan a severe scolding.
"Is this the good son you raised? He usually just idles away, but now he dares to get so close to the ministers of the family in private?! What is he planning to do? Tell the Yi family what your son wants to do.
?!"
Concubine Duan knelt on the ground and lowered her head, her attitude was extremely submissive: "It's all my fault. I failed to educate my son well. I won't complain how you want to punish me. I just hope you can take care of yourself and don't get angry."
body."
"Ask yourself, Ai Jia and Ah Feng have treated you well over the years, haven't they? Why on earth did your son have to go against Ah Feng? What is it about our grandparents and grandchildren that makes us so sorry for you that you have to treat us like this?!
"
Concubine Duan buried her head lower: "I think there must be some misunderstanding. When I see Ashen later and talk to him personally, I will be able to resolve the misunderstanding. Please don't be too anxious."
."
After hearing this, the Empress Dowager's face softened slightly, and she said with disappointment: "The Ai family is not partial to Ah Feng, but they don't want to see the tragedy of brothers killing each other again. Everyone says that the Tian family has weak family ties.
, but the Ai family still wants to believe in Ashen. After all, he is also a child that the Ai family has watched grow up. His heart is not evil and his thoughts are very simple. I think someone must have instigated this time and alienated the relationship between their brothers."
At this point, the Empress Dowager's expression suddenly became extremely gloomy: "Don't let the Ai family know who this person is, otherwise the Ai family will skin him and cramp him to let him know that our Xiao family is not fooled like this!"