Li Luo was stunned after hearing this, and thought to himself, "I just returned to the Prime Minister's Mansion from court, and the palace sent people to look for me. Could it be that something urgent happened?"
Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel nervous, and hurriedly said: "Let them in quickly."
After a while, the guard led two palace guards to Li Luo. Looking at the attire of the two people in front of him, Li Luo's face darkened and he asked the prime minister's guard angrily, "Are you sure they are the guards in the palace?"
The guard quickly reported: "Master Prime Minister, I have checked the waistbands of two people. One of them is Xu Wang, the deputy captain of the Imperial Guard in front of the palace, and the other is Du Peng, the horse washer in the crown prince's womb."
Li Luo nodded slightly, stroking his beard and asked, "You two come over to me. Is the prince back?"
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Du Peng made a "plop" sound, knelt on the ground and cried loudly, "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, Prime Minister, our prince...uuuuu!"
"What's wrong with the prince?" Li Luo's heart trembled when he saw this, and he asked sharply.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu our prince, wu wu, gone!"
"You, what did you say?" Li Luo stepped forward and kicked Du Peng to the ground. Then his vision went dark and he was about to fall to the ground. The guards of the Prime Minister's Office and Xu Wang who were next to him rushed forward quickly and held him firmly.
Hearing the commotion outside, the second lady Zhong Wan ran out of the inner room in three steps. The scene in front of her was so frightening that she instantly turned pale. Among the people who came up to pinch Li Luo, he shouted urgently: "Prime Minister, Prime Minister, what's wrong with you?"
After several people were busy for a while, Li Luo finally breathed a sigh of relief, slowly opened his eyes, and said with tears: "Madam, Guang'er is gone!"
"What?" Zhong Wan was shocked when he heard this, and said quickly: "Master Xiang, don't scare me. Guang'er is the prince, how can he just say that he is gone?"
Li Luo raised his finger and pointed at the trembling Du Peng who was kneeling on the ground, and said in a trembling voice: "Ask him!"
Hearing the sound, Zhong Wan looked up at Du Peng and said bitterly: "Who are you? How do you know that the prince is gone? If you don't speak clearly today, I will let the prime minister kill your head!"
Du Peng was so frightened that he kowtowed repeatedly and said: "Madam, please calm down. I am the bodyguard of His Highness the Crown Prince. I will tell you and the Prime Minister the details of the murder of the Crown Prince."
Zhong Wan's eyebrows stood up, he glared and shouted: "Say it quickly."
So Du Peng went down the mountain with the prince to Xinjing, the capital of Zheng State, and told them in detail about how they were surrounded and killed on the way. He emphasized that the prince ordered him to try to save his life and come back to report the news. However, when talking about the part where they were surrounded by a group of masked men in black, Li Luo interrupted and asked him why he concluded that these men in black were Zheng Guo's officers and soldiers, not rebels and robbers. You know, Zheng Guo's It had only been less than ten days since the country was restored, and there were stragglers everywhere. If someone organized them, they would be a considerable force, so Li Luo considered the possibility of this. However, Du Peng's answer was that the man in black who was the leader of the group of men in black at that time announced his family name and called himself Chen Xiaomu, the consort of the State of Zheng. Moreover, the prince was in the hands of this man who did not know his name but was able to spray. There was fire and noisy weapons!
After listening to this, Li Luo's face gradually turned the color of pig liver, his eyes were like two blazing flames, and his body was trembling slightly. The second wife, Zhong Wan, was frightened, fearing that he would lose his temper again. While gently caressing his chest with her hands, she comforted him softly: "Prime Minister, now that this has happened, getting anxious and angry will not help. From what I see, the Prime Minister still has to enter the palace as soon as possible, and will Report this matter to His Majesty!"
Li Luochang was silent for a long time, and finally sighed, "Alas... If the Holy Emperor knew about this, I don't know how sad he would be! However, that's all that can be done for now. Originally, during today's morning meeting, Taiwei Wang was still asking the Holy Emperor I was stopped from sending troops to Zheng State. Looking at it now, I am too pedantic!"
"So, the Prime Minister has changed his mind?" Zhong Wan asked.
Li Luo said bitterly: "I will work with Taiwei Wang to ask the Holy One to send troops to wipe out this small country of Zuer and avenge His Highness the Crown Prince!"
In the imperial dining room of Qi Palace, Qi Emperor Xiao Yan and Empress Dowager Wan Fang were sitting at the dining table, talking about the prince Xiao Daoguang and his brother Xiao Cheng. Queen Li Wen and imperial concubine Lin Lian were silent under the dining table. Sitting with me, the eunuch in the imperial dining room held a tray and placed various dishes on the dining table.
Wan Fang said worriedly: "Your Majesty, the prince has been going to his uncle's house for so many days. Why hasn't he even sent a letter back? The Ai family has been feeling very anxious these past two days!"
In fact, Xiao Yan was worried at this time, but he was the emperor, so how could he express his emotions easily, so he had to force a smile to comfort his mother and said: "Mother, don't worry, the prince is usually calm and calm. Nothing will go wrong. Besides, our Qi State informants are all over the new capital. If there are any mistakes, they will be reported back immediately by flying pigeons. By then, the Qi State army gathered at the border will be overwhelming. , and went straight to Xinjing, the capital of the Zheng Kingdom."
"Your Majesty's arrangement is very good!" The Empress Dowager finally relaxed a little.
At this time, the eunuch in charge of the imperial kitchen came over and bowed his hands and said: "Long live the Queen Mother, the Empress, the Concubine, please have a meal."
As soon as he finished speaking, before several people could pick up their chopsticks, they suddenly saw a little eunuch walking in hurriedly and reported: "Long live, the Prime Minister said that he has something urgent to see you!"
"Oh!" Xiao Yan put down the chopsticks he just picked up, looked at Queen Li Wen with a smile and joked: "Zitong, my uncle is here for dinner, right?"
Queen Li Wen's pretty face turned red, she lowered her head and said coquettishly: "Your Majesty is just joking. If my brother comes here at this time, there must be something important that needs to be reported to the Emperor."
Xiao Yan thought about it and immediately ordered the young eunuch: "Go and let the Prime Minister come in."
Not long after the little eunuch left, he led Li Luo in with a sad look on his face. The hearts of several people suddenly jumped up, and they saw Li Luo kneeling on the ground with a plop, sobbing: "Your Majesty, Crown Prince and Emperor Xiao All my brothers are gone!"
"What?" Xiao Yan suddenly stood up from his chair and shouted with a horrified look on his face: "What did you say?"
Li Luo trembled all over, regained his composure, and cried again: "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince and Brother Xiao were all killed by Chen Xiaomu, the Prince Consort of Zheng!"
"Guang'er...!" Upon hearing this, Queen Li Wen screamed and fainted immediately.
Empress Dowager Wan Fang pointed at Li Luo tremblingly, "Li Xiangguo, are everything you said true?"
Li Luo said sadly: "Empress Dowager, even if I die, I will not dare to talk nonsense about this matter."
Xiao Yan's eyes widened with anger, he banged the dining table, causing the dishes on the table to jingle, and shouted: "Come here, please play the Dengwen drum for me."
As soon as the Dengwen drum sounds, something big will happen in the court. As the Dengwen drum on the Drum Tower sounds "boom-boom", the civil and military officials who have just returned from the court quickly put on the court clothes they just took off and ride on horseback. Taking a sedan chair, we hurried to the Qinzheng Hall where the imperial meeting was held.
In less than half an hour, 90% of the civil and military officials had arrived, leaving only a few elderly people with weak legs and feet still on the road.
However, these civil and military officials saw an unprecedented scene in the court today. The empress dowager, who had never shown her face, actually sat side by side with the emperor on the dragon chair. What is even more surprising is that today, the two sides of the dragon chair were standing on different sides. The eunuchs were Queen Li Wen and Imperial Concubine Lin Lian. Even the five princes and three princesses who did not usually go to court were all present and stood in a line under the stage. In short, almost all the emperor's family were present at the court today. Appear in court.
After this period of buffering, Xiao Yan calmed down a lot. Seeing that all the officials had arrived, he said to Li Luo: "Li Xiangguo, please tell me what you just reported to me in front of everyone. ?”
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Li Luo then recounted the murder of the prince Xiao Daoguang and his brother Xiao Cheng in the state of Zheng, and ordered Du Peng, the bodyguard of the prince's palace who secretly protected the prince to go to the state of Zheng, to be brought into Qinzheng Testify in the temple.
After confirming Li Luo's report, the crowd in the Qinzheng Palace became furious. Almost all the officials who attended the court petitioned the Emperor Xiao Yan to send troops to attack Zheng. Especially the second prince Xiao Daoyuan cried bitterly and begged the Emperor to send troops. He avenged the prince and the emperor's uncle, and said that if the emperor sent troops, he would be willing to be the vanguard to attack the state of Zheng, otherwise he would rather die in this hall.
However, among this group of officials, Taiwei Wang Zhan, who had always advocated the use of troops against Zheng Guo, remained silent at this time. His abnormal behavior immediately attracted Xiao Yan's attention, and he immediately stopped the shouting of the officials below who asked for troops to be sent. Call Xiaoyang and ask Wang Zhan alone.
"Wang Taiwei, you have always advocated the use of troops against the State of Zheng. Now the use of troops is imminent. I wonder if you are ready to send troops to the State of Zheng at any time?" Xiao Yan asked, staring at Wang Zhan with eyes like an eagle.
As the emperor asked questions, many ministers who were still whispering at first suddenly focused their attention on Wang Zhan. Prime Minister Li Luo was even more eager to try. When Wang Zhan was a little slow in speaking, he came to speak for Wang Zhan. posture.
Unexpectedly, Wang Zhan said calmly at this time: "Your Majesty, the use of troops is a national matter. Can we discuss it again?"
"What?" As soon as Wang Zhan finished speaking, Li Luo jumped up, pointed at Wang Zhan's nose and shouted: "Wang Taiwei, what do you mean by this now? In the past, didn't you shout to attack Zheng Guo every day? Really? Now that we really want to fight, but you hold back, His Highness the Crown Prince who was killed in love has nothing to do with you, does it?"
Wang Zhan's face suddenly turned cold when he heard this, and he said in a deep voice: "What the Prime Minister said is wrong. In the past, it was true that the subordinates wanted to attack the Zheng State. Now, the situation in the Zheng State has changed greatly. Therefore, it is true that we have to act cautiously. "
"You should act with caution!" Li Luo sneered: "In my opinion, it was the prince who was killed, and it is true that you, the lieutenant, took pleasure in the misfortune."
Wang Zhan was startled, and then said angrily: "Li Xiangguo, you should not slander anyone. The prince was killed, and the whole country was sad. The old ministers were deeply favored by the emperor, and their livers and gallbladders were broken when they heard about it. Even if we want to attack Zheng Guo, we should Make a good battle plan first and strive for a successful attack, otherwise, if you are not careful, you will inevitably repeat the mistakes of the Chu State."
"Oh!" Li Luo said sarcastically: "So, in the past, the lieutenant said he wanted to attack Zheng Guo. He kept shouting about attacking Zheng Guo every day, but now he can't even come up with a battle plan?"
Seeing Li Luo clinging to him like a dog-skin plaster, Wang Zhan was angry and helpless, so he had no choice but to hold his fist to him and said: Mr. Xiangguo, what the official said is that the situation in Zheng Guo has changed now, and the rules formulated in the past have changed. The combat plan is no longer applicable to this battle! "
