"Your Majesty, please ask for permission to see me outside the door." The personal eunuch who usually served the emperor hurriedly walked through the corridor and came to the golden curtain. He knelt down and kowtowed, pressing his face against the carpet.
The breeze blew up a corner of the curtain, allowing the emperor to see clearly who the other party was. He was not in a hurry, took out the dagger from the bottom of his pillow, and blew on the blade a few times: "The emperor's nephew is here, it must be a state matter. I will go to the palace to see him. You retreat inside."
"yes."
Ever since the emperor handed over his little power to the prince, he has been living here deeply and has not left the palace for many years. When he was young, he was quite interested in playing chess, but now he has become more withdrawn and taciturn. He has left the chessboard to collect dust. He usually eats, sleeps, or sits on the royal bed in a daze, or muses. Wandering around the palace, if there is no state affairs involved, the people around you will not even hear a word. Therefore, these 'little ministers' had to be afraid of such unpredictable authority, so that they did not dare to look up.
He is keen on creating a mysterious image of himself, but he is not like the mentality of ordinary kings, who will be complacent about it. Instead, he becomes more and more timid: he is afraid that something will go wrong in his words and deeds, thus breaking the majesty he has worked so hard to accumulate. But he can only rely on this to gain a slight sense of security. The tearing emotion has been controlling him, making him nervous and doubtful like a madman. He just presses it strongly in his heart to prevent it from happening. .
"Your Majesty, Cunzhao, kowtows to you! Long live your Majesty! Long live your Majesty!" Cunzhao bowed three times and kowtowed nine times, and shouted upward.
The emperor seemed to be lost in thought for a while, not knowing what he was thinking. Only then was he brought back by these words. He looked around the empty space and sat behind the screen.
"Please get up. Is this a military matter today?"
"Yes and no. I recently went out to observe the army. I saw something strange about the defenders outside the capital. The troops moved around frequently. I hope your majesty will be cautious. It is best to issue an edict and let Cun Zhao investigate."
"I'm afraid it's hard to rely on your words." The emperor pressed a finger on the end of the dagger. "Is there anyone else who can testify?"
"Chen..." As soon as Cun Zhao said the first word, he frowned, looked back at the closed door, and didn't turn around for a long time.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Your Majesty," Cun Zhao quickly turned around and kowtowed, "I heard someone tapping on the door outside. I thought it was someone else, so I didn't dare to open it."
"I've sent the eunuch away a long time ago. It doesn't matter if you open the door."
Cun Zhao accepted the order and gently opened the two door panels of the hall. Immediately, there was a chorus of shouts: "I, Chen Tongpao and Ge Ming, are here to see the Holy Majesty!"
The emperor suddenly heard these two names, his eyes were startled, and then he looked straight ahead.
"Your Majesty, this Chen Shangshu was invited by Wei Chen." Cun Zhao looked ashamed and moved two steps to give up the position in the middle.
"Your Majesty, I can testify for Cun Sijun!" Chen Tongpao said sternly, "The army around the capital is controlled by the Liu Party. The recent concentration of troops must be that they have reached the end of their war effort and want to take advantage of the opportunity. Let’s fight to the death! As the saying goes, ‘the arrow is on the string and must be fired’, please your Majesty to issue an edict as soon as possible, ordering us to start an uprising, punish the rebels, and return the power to you!”
After saying that, he shed two lines of clear tears and took out a piece of wrinkled letter paper from his arms with trembling hands: "This is a letter from King Wanjun to persuade us to rebel. It is full of sincerity. I am very excited. Just for the sake of loyalty in my heart, I have been risking my life to preserve it, and now I dare to present it to His Majesty..."
Cun Zhao also clasped his fists and admonished: "Your Majesty! The common people in the world wish they could eat the flesh of thieves. If we don't comply with God's will and humanity at this time, what are we waiting for!"
The balance on which the emperor relied was tilted to the other side. He did not expect that Wan Heshun would break this delicate balance, and the appearance of this letter caught him off guard. He began to hesitate, not because he had any reluctance towards Liu Zhennian, but because he could not predict what would happen in the future and was full of fear about the foggy road. But he also realized that Liu Zhennian's rule could no longer be maintained. If someone else came to power, he would not only maintain a stable situation, but also cover up all the contradictions in the world with temporary victory. Wouldn't that be of great benefit to him? of imperial power?
He had two voices in his head, but he usually chose the calmer second option. But the ministers could not hear another voice. They could only see with their naked eyes that the emperor made the calmest choice.
"When will you start the uprising? How many people will be involved?"
"Your Majesty," Cun Zhao said, "In addition to Chen Shangshu, Eunuch Shen, Uncle Old Emperor, and Su Zongshan are also among them. There are not many people, so it is unlikely that the secret will be leaked. We made an appointment before the date. Counting from today, There are still eight days to go. After eight days, I will incite my subordinates and open the arsenal. Your Majesty can just lie down and wait for the victory."
"Then who will draft the documents for me?"
Ge Mingwei took a step forward with his knees on his knees, eyes blazing: "I am a member of the Imperial Academy, and I am writing an imperial edict to Your Majesty. It is reasonable and reasonable, and no one should be suspicious."
"How does Ge Qing write it?"
Ge Ming gritted his teeth and said, "Just say, 'The traitor Liu Zhennian has formed a party to cause chaos, and wants to raise troops to overthrow the country. There are thousands of major crimes, and it is impossible to escape the law of the country. Someone will arrest him quickly and put him in jail for interrogation!'"
Hu Chonglian saw Ge Mingwei's return from afar, and hurriedly hid behind the wall, quickly returned to the Ministry of Works, and reported to the Minister. After hearing this, the waiter became very angry and banged the table and cursed: "I tried so hard to make money for them. Although I didn't succeed, I still managed to get in with half my life! If I hadn't given Liu Dang an excuse, what would have happened?" How proud they Qingliu are today! This Ge Ming was recommended to the Holy One by Chen Tongpao despite not having accomplished anything yet... It seems that he will be given the position of provincial minister!"
Hu Chonglian smiled: "Sir, we are also from the Qingliu sect. How can we tell each other apart and call them one of them?"
The servant blushed and said, "I only recognized him as a master because he was willing to support me; now he treats me so unkindly, why should I care about him!"
"But in my humble opinion, Ge Ming's trip does not seem to be for the sake of provincial ministers."
"What can that do?"
"I don't know if..." Hu Chonglian dipped two drops of water from the tea bowl on his hand, wiped it on the table, and then looked at him with his big eyes.
"Okay," the minister was stunned, stroking his beard repeatedly, "This is an incredible achievement! If we can participate and bring down the Liu thief, wouldn't we have the merit of recovery, promotion and wealth, and honoring our ancestors? That would be great Nothing more to say! Damn it, Su Zongshan and Chen Tongpao. They didn’t ask everyone to discuss this matter together. They took the credit alone. How shameless! I thought of a way to see if we could share some of the oil and water. !”
