Princess Yufeng's eyes were full of suspicion: "Why, you, a seven-year-old little girl, can still understand this?"
Although everyone around him called Xie Dingning "His Royal Highness", as time went by, Xie Dingning may have accepted the identity of the eldest princess in a daze, but why would a seven-year-old kid have such a big reaction when hearing the word "consort"?
"I'm choking! Can't you do that?" Princess Jingrong asked confidently.
"Really?" Princess Yufeng leaned closer to her, narrowed her eyes slightly, looked at the face, and whispered: "Xie Dingning... Why do I feel like you are so stupid today?
Woolen cloth?"
"Of course I'm not stupid." Princess Jingrong rolled her eyes, "You are stupid."
Princess Yufeng's eyes widened - how dare an unscrupulous woman who had nothing to do with the old man in front of her dare to contradict her?
Does this mean she can no longer carry the knife?
Princess Yufeng immediately rolled up her sleeves and scratched the eldest princess.
The eldest princess leaned away and grabbed a pillow and threw it at it.
Seeing the mother and daughter fighting in the car, Shi Shi silently protected the teapot and bowl.
After such a fuss for a while, the eldest princess was really tired, so she leaned against Princess Yufeng, yawned and closed her eyes.
"Thank you Jiaojiao..."
"What? You want me to nod and agree to your marriage to Ming Xiaozhi?" Princess Yufeng thought half-seriously and half-falsely, and sighed: "Speaking of it, our eldest princess's house has never accepted an old bald man.
As for the precedent... I have to think about this carefully."
"..." The eldest princess ignored her words, hugged one of her arms and quickly fell asleep.
"Your Highness must be really tired." Shi Shi said softly beside him, taking a thin blanket and covering it with the eldest princess.
Princess Yufeng looked at the face that was breathing evenly.
I am both fussing and crying, how can I not be lacking?
I thought it would be easy for Xie Dingning to be a child.
But her family, Xie Dingning...is it really easy?
Princess Yufeng sighed vaguely.
A wisp of autumn wind entered the car, Princess Yufeng raised her hand and gently pulled the blanket upwards.
…
In the Yangxin Hall, the emperor was leaning on the Arhat bed, but the bright candlelight could not dispel the darkness in his eyes.
The ministers gathered in the palace, and the atmosphere was tense.
Before this, no one would have thought that the riot in the Imperial Ancestral Temple during the day was just the beginning...
Shortly after returning to the palace from the Imperial Ancestral Temple, news came - from the top and bottom of the Zhenguo Duke's mansion, from the Xu family members to the servants, in just half a day, not one of them was left, and all of them disappeared!
What is even more shocking is that even Prince Dingnan and his wife have disappeared together!
Under this circumstance, it is obvious who planned what happened at the Imperial Ancestral Temple today...
To be able to do it so neatly must have been planned in advance... So from the time Duke Zhen Guo returned to Beijing, he had this idea in mind. The previous talk about the power to surrender was just to tease the emperor!
Some ministers sighed heavily in their hearts.
I thought that the Duke of Zhen was a loyal and honest man, but who could I have imagined that he turned out to be an emotional liar!
However, if you think about it carefully, these changes are not without reason...
Putting aside the many suspicions of the emperor, he picked the closest one and said that just as King Yan was about to enter the capital, the emperor used the affairs of the Li clan to mobilize the Xu family army...
The Duke of Zhen Guo recommended himself to lead the troops, but the emperor was better off. He was fighting exhaustingly over there, but he was poisoning people here! - Don't say that it was all Xia Tingzhen's idea. Who hasn't?
Don’t you have eyes?
First, he wanted to kill Duke Zhen Guo, but when he saw that his life was about to fail, he also wanted to bring his only granddaughter into the palace... Who in the capital didn't know that this little girl was the eyeball of Duke Zhen Guo?
If you really want people to come into the palace, I'm afraid it will be worse than directly killing the Duke of Zhenguo!
These tricks come one after another. Not to mention that the Duke of Zhen is so impatient, they may not be able to sit still. After all, no one's hobby is waiting to die!
Of course, it cannot be said that the emperor did something wrong...
There is no right or wrong in the art of emperors, but the prerequisite is that you have that ability, right?
If you don’t have any skills, you still mess around, and you are addicted to food. If you don’t overturn, who will overturn!
If you really think that the Duke of Zhen's control of the Xu family's army is a disaster, then you can call them to secretly discuss countermeasures. Although it is not honorable to be suspicious of heroes, for the sake of the country, veterans like them have to... right?
They are not white-collar workers either!
If you want military power, tell them!
I wanted to do it, but I couldn't lose the face, and I still wanted to keep the character of being kind and generous, so I closed the door and thought about it, oh, I invited Xia Tingzhen to discuss it - that's a man who plays with power and seeks for his own interests.
If you just listen to him, how can you avoid being ruined?
Now that this stall has collapsed, I know I have come to them to discuss countermeasures, but what so-called good ideas can I come up with now?
It's nothing more than waiting for news, hoping that it will be discovered in time and the person can be recovered...
Otherwise, it will be a disaster!
After all, this is not just the power of the Zhenguo Government!
In the anxious atmosphere, the messenger finally arrived.
A security guard and a soldier, whose faces were burned by poisonous powder, knelt down in the hall.
Looking at the demeanor and posture of these two people, the hearts of all the officials were already a little heavy.
The security guard spoke first, his forehead resting on the cold gold brick, and his voice was trembling and uneasy: "Your Majesty, Duke Zhenguo... has escaped."
This short sentence made everyone in the hall change their expressions.
Even though they had thought about this possibility, when they heard these words, the officials still felt a chill all over their bodies.
"..."
As early as the two people who reported the news entered the palace, they had already forced themselves to sit up straight. Emperor Qingming did not speak for a while.
After this conspiratorial silence lasted for a moment, the emperor suddenly waved his sleeves and swept down the tea cup and other items on the small table at his elbow.
"Bang!"
A loud noise spread in the hall, tea and broken porcelain were splashed, and the two people who were kneeling and shivering almost pressed their upper bodies against the floor tiles.
"Where is Han Yan?!" Emperor Qingming asked sharply.
"Back to your Majesty, the commander was seriously injured and fell into a coma. His life and death are now uncertain..."
Han Yan was seriously injured?!
Several ministers were slightly surprised.
"That means Zeng has caught up!" The emperor's face was filled with frost.
"Yes... but they used poison and they were able to escape... The commander only brought a hundred people with him..." The detective guard said in a trembling voice: "But when they left the city, the commander had ordered people to go to the capital camp to deliver a message to the town.
Before the Duke and others escaped, we heard the sound of a trumpet from the direction of Jingying, and thought..."
I thought that with the Beijing army here, they would be able to stop it!
The soldier wanted to scold his mother - he couldn't escape anyway, and now he had to be dragged into the water!
"As soon as the camp received the report, without a moment's delay, they ordered their troops and set off to chase. The villain followed Vice General Yang to the Jingshui River, but... Xu's army rushed to meet him first and cut off the rope bridge on the Jingshui River.
…”
After hearing this, Emperor Qingming suddenly laughed.
"Well...well done, really well done!"
He really raised a group of useful and capable people!
This Jie Jie's laughter hit everyone's hearts and made them go crazy.
Several ministers secretly exchanged glances, wondering if the emperor was going crazy...
After a moment, the smile on Emperor Qingming's face suddenly disappeared, and he said firmly: "Drag these two people down and kill them with sticks!"
"Your Majesty, spare your life!"
The soldier quickly kowtowed and begged for mercy, but before he could make a second sound, his mouth was covered and dragged out.
The officials' backs felt cold, but no one said anything to stop him.
At this juncture, the most important thing is the next response. As for the lives of these two people and whether the emperor still wants to be a human being, it is not worth wasting time.
A minister stood up and suggested: "Your Majesty, Xu Qiwei has been convicted of rebellion. The top priority is to send troops to encircle and suppress him immediately!"
"Master Su, please don't forget that the little prince is still in their hands!" Ming Yushi stood up and said: "Your Majesty, I think this matter should not be acted upon lightly!"
"How can this be called a rash move? Xu Qiwei kidnapped not only the young prince, but also the Queen Mother and Queen Wu, and Prince Dingnan had also defected from the capital. This clearly shows that this matter was a secret alliance between the Xu and Wu families.
King Yan’s plot! If we don’t get rid of it in time, how can we let it become powerful?”
The Censor of the Ming Dynasty sneered and said: "Master Su, we are encircling and exterminating them one by one. Are you kidding me? That's more than 100,000 Xu family troops. It can't be wiped out by a group of mountain bandits! What are we going to use to suppress it? Do we need Master Su to suppress it?"
A mouth?"
"you……"
"What the Censor of the Ming Dynasty said is not unreasonable..." The Minister of Rites agreed: "Your Majesty, I believe that we should first try to appease the Duke of Zhen in exchange for room to return to the world."
"There is no possibility of returning to the world. Since Xu Qiwei has kidnapped the Queen Mother and others, it is impossible to turn back!"
"That's not necessarily the case..." Some ministers considered it and said, "Even if Duke Zhen Guo intends to surrender to King Yan, all he wants is to protect himself from the current situation. If Your Majesty is willing to sincerely make peace with him, he will be at ease.
, and then giving them a place to stay may avoid a turmoil..."
Emperor Qingming sneered after hearing this.
Show sincerity?
Does this require him to beg Xu Qiwei?
How to make peace?
How to put his mind at ease!
Do you want to give him some land and allow him to establish himself as a king?
Simply ridiculous!
The ministers in the palace were extremely divided and argued for a while.
At this time, an eunuch entered the palace and asked Ji Xiu, the minister of the Ministry of War, to ask for an audience with the minister of Dali Temple.
The two of them could already hear the quarrel outside the palace, and when they entered the palace, they could not see much quieter.
There are also close colleagues who saw the Minister of Dali Temple and wanted to recruit him to join the camp: "Xu Qiwei is openly rebellious, and there are still people who advocate for peace. If he blindly gives in in the face of such rebellious ministers and traitors, wouldn't it only encourage his arrogance! If everyone else is
Taking this as an example, I don’t know how many Xu Qiwei there will be! How can I, Daqing, gain a foothold? Tell me what this means!”
Seeing the faces of friends and colleagues quarreling with each other, Dali Temple's Qing felt calm, and he felt as if he had transformed into a lotus in front of the Buddha, quiet, serene, and detached.
He has already chosen the coffin, why does he still care about this?
If I had nothing important to report at this time, I would have gone home to eat and sleep.
Listening to the arguing in his ears, Ji Xiu's mood was very different from everyone else's.
They were so quarrelsome about whether to seek peace or not, and even listed the disadvantages of seeking peace here, as if the Duke of Zhen Guo would agree to it right away.
Grant a city?
They can rob it themselves, but they don’t want you to give it to them!
Emperor Qingming felt a fire burning in his heart. He looked at Dali Temple Minister and Ji Xiu who had no chance to speak, and asked: "Did those assassins who robbed the prison survive?"
"Your Majesty, we have captured five people and handed them over to Beizhen Fusi for interrogation and disposal." Ji Xiu said: "As for the remaining people who escaped, I have ordered people to search for them in the city with all their strength."
It’s not like he’s doing things with all his heart—
After all, if you don't use all your strength, even if you catch and chop all these people, it will not be of any practical use. At most, it will just vent the emperor's anger.
The Minister of Dali Temple then spoke: "Your Majesty, I have something to report."
"explain!"
He would like to hear what other troubles there are today!
"Half an hour ago, Xia Tingzhen... hanged himself in prison out of fear of crime."
"What..." Emperor Qingming's eyes changed.
Xia Tingzhen committed suicide?
The noise in the hall immediately disappeared.
No one expected to hear such news at this time——
Now, there is no suspense whether today's incident is related to Xia Tingzhen. The assassination or even the prison robbery was just a way for the Duke of Zhen to use Xia Tingzhen's name to confuse his attention.
Although Xia Tingzhen is in prison, she may not have heard of it at all...
Duke Zhenguo rebelled, so the idea of exchanging military power became empty talk. Ordinarily, this was an opportunity for Xia Tingzhen... so why did she choose to commit suicide instead?
And Emperor Qingming naturally thought of everything they could see.
But the difference is that he has another guess.
The assassination and the prison robbery were both confirmed to have been committed by Xu Qiwei...
There is only one thing that has not been confirmed yet - the poisonous tea that Rong held in front of him in the Ancestral Temple today...
That bitch Rong is still stubborn and refuses to admit it.
But he believed that she would confess sooner or later...
Therefore, there is no need to rush to a conclusion prematurely about Xia Tingzhen's suicide.
As for whether the other party is dead or alive, it doesn't mean much to him now. Now that he has achieved this step, Xia Tingzhen cannot use it again or dare to use it again.
If you die, you will die.
"I understand."
The emperor's voice was calm and cold.
The ministers couldn't figure it out at the moment, and they had no time to speculate too much. To put it bluntly, when this big event was approaching, the death of an insignificant Xia Tingzhen was nothing.
Things in the world are unpredictable, and some things that are enough to cause a stir will mean nothing at a special moment.
The chief minister of the dynasty, who had been in power for more than ten years, is now dead and cannot even stir up a splash.
Emperor Qingming's dark eyes fell on Ji Xiu.
"I am discussing with the ministers the matter of Xu Qiwei's rebellion, and I just want to hear Ji Qing's opinion."
Ji Xiu responded "Yes".
The lights in Yangxin Hall stayed on all night.
When the officials left, the sky in the east had turned faintly white.
They had not eaten for almost a night and a day, and only drank water to support themselves. Most of the officials were exhausted at this time, and they just argued about what should have been argued. At this time, they left in twos and threes, and they all kept silent and said nothing more, but their faces
None are optimistic.
Ji Xiu walked out of the forbidden palace gate and sat in the official sedan, his eyes flickering.
