Li Hongyun continued to watch countless light spots moving in Chang'an City from God's perspective.
Obviously, if this trend continues, people around the prince will soon be incited to rebel and become members of the Qin royal party.
There is an obvious key point in the struggle between the two, and that is the fundamental issue of both parties.
The King of Qin has a very solid foundation, which is a military meritorious group composed of many famous ministers and military generals with the King of Qin's Palace as the core.
The military merit group's trust and support for the King of Qin was unreserved.
While King Qin made great military achievements, the huge prestige he built for the grassroots of the army and the people at the bottom is also an aspect that cannot be ignored.
Many people only know about the King of Qin but not about the Emperor. This is not surprising.
I remember that Liang Gaozu raised troops from Jinyang to conquer Chang'an and left the King of Qi in his base camp in Jinyang to guard it. As a result, the King of Qi acted recklessly in Jinyang and took pleasure in shooting and hunting people on the streets.
So by the time Liu Wuzhou came over, the Liang Dynasty had already lost the support of the people in Jinyang. Not only did they not help Liang Jun, but they went into hiding one after another.
When the King of Qin came to pacify Liu Wuzhou, when the people heard that it was the King of Qin who was coming, they came out to support Liang Jun one after another.
In the eyes of ordinary people, this is a very reasonable thing. To them, Liang Gaozu, who was as high as the sky and the emperor as far away as the emperor, was just an invisible and intangible symbol. What did it have to do with them?
The King of Qin led his army to quell the troubled times, and also strictly ordered his men to do no harm to the people. Comparing the two, it is self-evident which one the people would favor more.
On the other hand, the prince does not have much fundamentals.
If there was one, it would be the group of ministers that his status as prince had won for him.
These ministers hope to make a contribution in helping the prince succeed to the throne, but how many of them will stand firmly by the prince's side?
How many of them are helping him because of his status as the prince, and how many of them really recognize this person?
I'm afraid it's hard to say.
Therefore, in the first stage of poaching each other, King Qin obviously had the upper hand in all aspects.
If this continues, the prince's position will be in danger.
Although in hindsight, it can be seen that the stronger the power of King Qin, the more obvious Liang Gaozu's willingness to pull a side was. If the stalemate continued, it would be almost impossible for King Qin to depose the crown prince and replace him with normal means. However, at that time, he was
The prince in the game cannot know this.
He could not fully trust his father, Liang Gaozu.
Therefore, in order to protect himself, the prince naturally launched a counterattack.
But how to fight back?
Soft methods have failed. If you want to poach someone, Prince Qin's palace is basically a monolith, and you can't do it with money or personal charm.
Then you can only use hard methods.
Two spots of light came out of the prince's palace and came into the deep palace. They were the prince and King Qi preparing to meet Liang Gaozu.
At the same time, a light spot came to Yuchi Jingde's house and lingered outside the door.
Li Hongyun continued to watch the play, and he found that the light spot on Yuchi Jingde's side did not move for a long time. It seemed that he had not started to take action yet, so he first watched the performances of the Crown Prince and King Qi in the palace.
"Father, my son, please kill the King of Qin!"
The prince and King Qi both knelt down.
Liang Gaozu frowned, but he didn't seem too surprised, he just waved his hands helplessly: "You two, stop making trouble!
"Hasn't this matter been mentioned many times? The King of Qin has the power to bring peace to the world, and he has no serious charges. If he wants to be killed, what reason should he use to stop the people of the world from talking about it?"
But the King of Qi still refused to give up: "Father, although I am not guilty, if I don't kill the King of Qin, disaster will happen in the long run!
"After the King of Qin defeated Luoyang, he kept on the sidelines and refused to return to Chang'an. Not only that, he also scattered money and silk privately, gave away wealth widely, and continued to establish his prestige along the way.
"My father had issued an edict at that time, asking the two noble concubines to select treasures from the treasury. As a result, King Qin disobeyed the order. What is this if not rebellion?
"If my father is really determined to kill him, why bother?"
For the emperor, if he really wanted to kill someone, he would not have to worry about finding a reason.
What King Qi said was quite excessive. You must know that he was not an ordinary hero. He was the second son of Liang Gaozu and his second brother.
It stands to reason that when brothers slandered each other in front of their father, Liang Gaozu, the father, should have been furious and even punished King Qi.
However, he fell into silence.
King Qi's words obviously moved him.
If the King of Qin deliberately conspired to rebel, then Liang Gaozu didn't quite believe it at this time.
But this does not mean that Liang Gaozu had no grudges against King Qin's behavior.
When the two noble concubines took his imperial edict and went to Luoyang to select treasures from the treasury, but were rejected by the King of Qin, Liang Gaozu was already very unhappy. He summoned the King of Qin and cursed him, asking: "Is my edict not as good as yours?"
Teaching?”
This has always been a thorn in Liang Gaozu's heart.
What's more, although what King Qi said was embellished, it was also true.
In the process of pacifying Luoyang, the King of Qin rewarded all the treasures in the treasury to the soldiers, and at the same time vigorously recruited talents.
The key to these behaviors depends on how they are interpreted.
It can be interpreted that he was rewarding meritorious officials for the Liang Dynasty and winning over people's hearts. It can also be interpreted that he was doing this to cultivate his own power.
What did King Qin do to cultivate his own power?
Even if there is no rebellion at this time, what will happen as time goes by?
At this moment, the prince said in time: "Father, even if you don't kill King Qin now, you should be held accountable. Otherwise, if father continues to indulge, King Qin will become even more arrogant and wanton, and will no longer take father into consideration."
inside.
"According to my opinion, my father should issue an edict to reprimand the King of Qin and dismantle the Tiance Mansion, in order to show the intention of knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger, so that the King of Qin can restrain his behavior."
Obviously, the two brothers are also well versed in negotiation skills.
If you say that you want to open a window at the beginning, then it will probably not work; but if you first say that you want to remove the roof, and then take a step back and say that you just want to open a window, then the possibility of this plan being approved will be greatly increased.
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Sure enough, Liang Gaozu was silent again.
What the prince said is a good idea.
Liang Gaozu did not want to see King Qin's power expand indefinitely, but after all, he was not an ordinary hero, but his second son who was related by blood. He could not just kill him for any reason like he did with ordinary heroes.
Although Liang Gaozu often had conflicts between his three sons, he still had a father-son feeling for King Qin.
After a long silence, Liang Gaozu nodded: "Okay, in that case, I will ask someone to write an edict."
The prince and King Qi were overjoyed and said goodbye.
After the two left, Liang Gaozu immediately found the prime minister at the time and wanted him to draft such an edict.
However, Prime Minister Chen Shuda was horrified: "Your Majesty, you must not do this!
"The King of Qin has made great contributions to the world, how can he be deposed easily? What's more, the King of Qin is a temperamental person with an extremely strong character. If he is suppressed with such an unconvincing reason, I am afraid that he will be worried and angry, and there will be unexpected diseases!
"By then, it will be too late for Your Majesty to regret it!"
Liang Gaozu fell silent again.
After much consideration, he decided not to issue the edict.
As for what made Liang Gaozu give up, it's hard to say.
There are four key words in Chen Shuda's original words: "unexpected disease".
The word "disease" has many meanings in ancient Chinese, such as damage, jealousy, hatred, speed, fierceness, etc. But the word "disease" here can only have two interpretations.
The first explanation is its original meaning, which is "disease", and the second explanation is its extended meaning, which is "shortcomings, problems, disasters" and so on.
Chen Shuda's words can be said to be quite level.
He did not say "unexpected disaster", but used the word "disease", which conveyed two meanings at the same time.
The first meaning is that the King of Qin is a man of temperament, and if he is suppressed forcefully, I am afraid that he will get sick from anger and die of sorrow and anger.
This is to arouse Liang Gaozu's sympathy as a father.
The second meaning is that if the suppression is forcible, some unpredictable disasters may occur.
And this hints at the danger of Liang Gaozu doing this.
As for which meaning Liang Gaozu focused on, only Liang Gaozu himself knows.
Li Hongyun prefers the second option.
Obviously, although Liang Gaozu had temporarily given up the idea of punishing the King of Qin at this time, his suspicion of the King of Qin would become more serious after this incident.
Because in the process of deciding to issue and cancel the edict, Liang Gaozu realized a problem, that is, even if he was the emperor, it was no longer easy to manipulate the King of Qin at will.
And this kind of thing is unacceptable to the emperor.
Even if the other person is his own son.
In history, it was not uncommon for the emperor to personally kill the prince, not to mention that the King of Qin was not the prince.
The plot in the palace came to an end for the time being, and Li Hongyun turned his attention to Yuchi Jingde's mansion again.
He didn't take a closer look at what was going on here before, but now he zoomed in and took a closer look, and Li Hongyun almost laughed out loud.
Because that spot of light lingering outside Yuchi Jingde's mansion for a long time turned out to be an assassin!
Obviously, after the crown prince and King Qi failed to win over Yuchi Jingde, they used other methods.
If you can't win over him, then assassinate him.
Yuchi Jingde had a very high status in the palace of the King of Qin, and he was the absolute supporter and right-hand man of the King of Qin.
Looking back in hindsight, Yuchi Jingde indeed exerted great energy in the Xuanwu Gate Incident, and he was the first to be rewarded for his merits.
There is nothing wrong with the decision made by the Crown Prince and King Qi. The only problem is...
Assassinate Yuchi Jingde?
What kind of brain circuit can produce this genius idea?
Yuchi Jingde opened all the doors in his house, did not arrange any guards, and slept soundly in his room.
The assassin was very moved after seeing Yuchi Jingde being so magnanimous, so he woke Yuchi Jingde and explained his purpose.
The two actually became friends of life and death.
Afterwards, Yuchi Jingde treated the assassin well, treated him with great courtesy, and then sent him away.
Seeing this scene, Li Hongyun frowned slightly again.
This is obviously a bit too idealistic and is obviously the result of interpretation of the novel.
With Li Hongyun's intervention, this scene became more common sense.
Yuchi Jingde knew in advance that the assassin was coming to assassinate him, so he opened all the doors in his home and slept soundly.
But this is not to show his magnanimity to the assassin and try to impress the assassin with his loyalty, but more like an empty city tactic.
Opening all the doors completely contrary to common sense is actually a hint to the assassin: I already know that you are coming to assassinate me.
But not only did I not guard against you, I also opened the door and let you come in as you pleased.
So, do you dare to assassinate me?
Li Hongyun put himself into the assassin's perspective and found that being assigned this job was quite unlucky.
Assassination of Yuchi Jingde? What did the prince and King Qi think?
Although the King of Qi was not very good at fighting, his personal force value was not low. As a result, Yuchi Jingde sparred with him and snatched the gun from his hand as if it were a game, and even took it three times in a row.
Such a murderous person, who is almost considered to be the ceiling of martial arts in the world, assassinates people...
As a result, the assassin lingered outside Yuchi Jingde's mansion for a long time, and finally gave up.
He did not think that he could successfully assassinate Yuchi Jingde without his knowledge.
Although Yuchi Jingde appeared to be sound asleep and snoring loudly, who knows if he was pretending to sleep?
A general who can survive a hundred battles on a bloody battlefield, has fought many tough battles, and seen many conspiracies, will he really be defenseless?
I'm afraid that if I enter the mansion, I will be ambushed immediately.
In this way, the second operation against Yuchi Jingde also ended in failure.
After the relatively gentle poaching in the first stage, the prince and the king of Qi had realized their own disadvantages, so they changed their strategies.
Judging from these two actions, it seems that they failed.
Liang Gaozu did not accuse the King of Qin, and Yuchi Jingde was not assassinated.
But in fact, the prince's and King Qi's strategy had already worked, because they had planted a seed in Liang Gaozu's heart.
Soon, this seed will take root and sprout.
Soon after, the prince and the king of Qi took action again. This time, they were still targeting Yuchi Jingde, but the method became a false accusation.
As expected, Yuchi Jingde was imprisoned by Liang Gaozu. The King of Qin went to the palace and begged, and finally he was fished out.
Although Yuchi Jingde was fished out due to the hard work of the King of Qin, this has already sent an extremely bad signal.
Maybe next time, other heroes in Prince Qin's palace will not have such good luck.
As countless light points flickered, military reports from the north were sent to the palace, and were learned by the prince, King Qin and King Qi one after another.
Two crucial pieces of news began to stir up the situation.
The first one is Taibai Jingtian.
In other words, Taibai Venus appears in the midday position due south in the sky during broad daylight.
Taishi Ling wrote: "When Taibai sees the division of Qin, the King of Qin should rule the world."
The second one is that the Turks began to break into the border fortress and surrounded Wucheng.
These two incidents together constituted the trigger for the Xuanwumen Incident, and the conflict between the two sides instantly became fierce.
In fact, in the previous process, a lot of things happened in Li Hongyun's field of vision, but after all, his energy was limited and he could only focus on part of it.
At this time, these two major events had almost disturbed the entire situation in Chang'an City, and it was impossible for him to ignore them even if he wanted to.
From a modern perspective, a simple celestial phenomenon such as Taibai Jingtian is not of the same level as the influence of the Turkic invasion. After all, one is a normal celestial phenomenon, illusory and will not affect reality, while the other
It is a real border trouble.
But in the eyes of people at the time, the former was obviously much more serious than the latter.
Because the ancients believed in the unity of nature and man, they believed that celestial phenomena often heralded some major events.
When everyone from the emperor to the people firmly believes in something, even if it is illusory, its influence will exceed many things that actually happen in reality.
And Tai Shi Ling's memorial was almost like directly handing a knife to the prince.
For the King of Qin, the statement "When Taibai sees that Qin is divided, the King of Qin will rule the world" can be said to imply murderous intentions, and big things will happen if he is not careful.
As for why this matter is so serious, it is because this celestial phenomenon is too coincidental.
Taibai Jingtian, in the eyes of the ancients, was a precursor to a major event or a change in power. In ancient times, there was a saying: "Taibai Jingtian, the world is in revolution, and the people are replacing their kings. This is because of disorder and discipline, and the people are in exile. The day sees and the sun strives for brightness."
, the saying goes that a strong country is weak, a small country is strong, and the heroine is prosperous.
What's worse is that this time, the positions of Taibai Jingtian and Taibai Venus in the sky correspond to the land of Qin.
The ancient astronomical theory matched the twenty-eight constellations with the entire territory of China, which became a powerful support for the theory of induction between heaven and man.
For example, poems such as "We go to the Li Well and look up to the breath" and "The stars divide into wings, and the earth connects to Henglu" all use the stars in the sky to refer to the direction of the underground.
And the celestial phenomenon of Taibai Jingtian appears, and it happens to appear in the position corresponding to the land of Qin, so the conclusion of this celestial phenomenon is quite clear in mysticism: the King of Qin should rule the world.
Strictly speaking from the perspective of the theory of induction between heaven and man, Taishi Ling's inference is reasonable and well-founded, and there is basically no room for refutation.
Taibai Jingtian means the change of dynasties, strong countries are weak, and small countries are strong. As emperor, Liang Gaozu was of course the stronger one, so who was going to replace him?
Taibai Venus appears again in the position corresponding to Qin, which is self-evident.
When Liang Gaozu heard this rhetoric, it is completely understandable that he was furious.
So he quickly summoned King Qin to the palace to find out what happened.
If King Qin cannot give a reasonable answer, the consequences will be serious.
In fact, it was basically impossible for the King of Qin to give a reasonable answer. What else could he say other than to argue that he had no intention of rebellion? Is it necessary to popularize modern astronomy knowledge to Liang Gaozu?
At this time, the Turks invaded, giving the prince and King Qi an excellent opportunity to take action.
The prince recommended to Liang Gaozu that King Qi should replace King Qin, and the commander-in-chief commanded all armies to march north to resist the Turkic invasion.
More importantly, he also asked Yuchi Jingde, Cheng Zhijie, Qin Qiong and other famous generals from the Qin Palace to go with him.
He even had to review and select the elite soldiers under the King of Qin to enhance the strength of his own army.
If the prince had used Liang Gaozu to continuously separate the famous ministers of the Qin Palace and send them to the local areas to do so in a relatively covert manner, then taking advantage of the opportunity of the Turks' invasion, they completely showed off their cards and stopped pretending.
King Qi's departure was equivalent to cutting off King Qin's wings and taking away all the generals who were truly loyal to him.
At that time, King Qi did not need to seriously fight against the Turks. He only needed to use the military orders of the court to firmly tie these generals to his hands.
In this situation, Yuchi Jingde and others could only endure and could not do anything, because if they acted rashly, the King of Qi could use the excuse of disobeying military orders to kill them.
After King Qin's wings were cut off, it would be much easier for the prince to take action again.
After all, in Chang'an City at this time, with Liang Gaozu constantly trying to sidestep the situation, the actual armed force controlled by the prince was more than that of the King of Qin.
The entire city of Chang'an instantly became tense.
Almost everyone was clearly aware of one thing: the outcome between the Crown Prince and King Qin would soon be announced.
