The Jiuxi controversy mentioned by Huo Wen is indeed causing an uproar in both the government and the public in the imperial capital.
Li Jiangyao's illustrious achievements for the Holy Tang Dynasty were real and obvious to ordinary officials and ordinary people in the imperial capital. The voices supporting the awarding of special honors to Li Jiangyao are also sincere responses generated by this.
But precisely because of this, Li Bing felt even more troubled to sleep and eat.
The so-called master of great achievements has been true in ancient and modern times.
Although it is often said that kings have divine right. As an emperor, he represents heaven and governs all directions, but the actual situation is that every monarch with a normal mind knows very well that only those who win the hearts and minds of the people can win the world.
And this popular support refers to the support of the people, officials and soldiers.
When a great hero appears in the dynasty who is supported by the people, then for the emperor, he must consider whose side the people will side with if an unexpected situation occurs, which determines the outcome of life and death.
Jiuxi itself is not important, it is nothing more than the clothes he wears, the car he rides in, and the guards he wears. The corresponding level is higher, even in line with the emperor's standards.
Li Bing believed that Li Jiangyao, who owned thousands of miles of western territory and controlled countless elites, would not be so superficial and insist on comparing himself on these small things. What he was worried about was the reaction of the court and the people to the reward of nine tins.
If most people do not agree with giving Li Jiangyao such an honor, it means that people still have a distinction between monarch and minister in their hearts, and they also know that no matter how great a minister's merits are, he cannot easily covet the various honors of the sacred imperial power. After Li Jiangyao received such a signal, he would be more or less scrupulous about many issues, and he could not and did not dare to do anything outrageous rashly.
But if the situation is the opposite, and most people agree to reward meritorious officials, and even think it is very reasonable to give Jiuxi as a reward, it means that the people's hearts have changed unconsciously. This will gradually change Li Jiangyao's mentality until he makes a disobedient move.
To put it bluntly, high achievements are not the root of the shock, but the people's heart.
Although Li Xiuming, the subordinate of Tong Zhongshu, Li Maoxun, the prince of Hejian County, and others went to Emperor Shu to express their opposition to the award of nine tins to Li Jiangyao, their voices were far louder than those of the civil and military officials secretly instigated by Bu Chengdong. and the common people who spontaneously expressed their approval.
The murderous plan has been laid out by Queen Cheng Wen.
Regardless of whether Li Jiangyao himself accepted Jiuxi or not, Emperor Li Bing once again focused his strong sense of crisis on the Chief Protector of the Zhenjiang Army and began to become highly nervous.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ouyang Lin also stepped up his search efforts, and through continuous encirclement and suppression operations against Shen Lie and the Intelligence Department, he gradually gained more and more power to control the security of the imperial capital.
For safety reasons, Shen Lie decided to evacuate this place as soon as possible. He and Yuan Bin Shi Feng cleverly designed to let Yuan Bin pretend to be himself and occasionally show up in other places in the city, successfully diverting the attention of the Forbidden Army's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry and Beiya Nilin Division, and then with the help of the Intelligence Division, they launched the attack in batches Leave the imperial capital.
After getting out of danger, Shen Lie entrusted Shi Feng and other secret agents to escort Rui Ji and Wu Ling westward to Western Xinjiang. As long as you pass Zijin Pass, you will truly reach the territory of the Zhenjiang Army. In that place, no matter how powerful the imperial court was, there was nothing they could do against the Intelligence Department.
He and Yuan Bin went to Jiangnan to find Li Jiangyao. They got a lot of valuable information from Wu Ling, all of which were closely related to Lao Jianhua and Li Zhang, which would definitely help in the counter-insurgency war.
Shen Lie and the others all left, and Princess Fenyang could only shoulder the intelligence tasks for the imperial capital for the time being. In order to avoid Ouyang Lin's attack, Li Xi suggested that the Imperial City Branch of the Intelligence Department should not contact her for the time being, and that she should try to complete all information and actions independently.
Fortunately, the imperial army has fully crossed the river, and the day of victory is not far away. As long as they survive the last period of time and wait until Li Jiangyao and Murong Xue lead their troops back to the imperial capital, then there is no need to worry about any little tricks.
However, what Li Xi did not expect was that the degree of turmoil and undercurrents in the imperial capital far exceeded her expectations and imagination. Just as the counter-rebellion army was marching forward and sending back good news, a new political conspiracy was quietly brewing in the imperial city.
The first strange change came from the Imperial Medical Clinic.
Imperial doctor Xin Zhongshu said that this year there are two in seventy years. The old man studied at home since he was a child, and also studied under Yuan Hai, a famous doctor in the Holy Tang Dynasty. He was elected to the imperial medical hall at the age of twenty-one. Now he has served four emperors and is the first imperial doctor.
There was a witticism circulated in the court, "You can live to be eighty-one if you keep an eye on Dr.
In addition to the emperors, concubines, princes and princesses, the princes, nobles, civil and military ministers, as well as their families and children, if they have a headache or a fever, they all hope to ask Xin Zhongshu to take a look at it, so that they can feel at ease.
However, Doctor Xin, who could keep others alive until eighty-one, could not pass the seventy-two mark himself.
Dr. Xin Tai died in an unknown manner.
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On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, Li Bing went to bed late while reviewing memorials. The cold night was heavy with dew, so he couldn't help but catch a cold. The next day, he felt dizzy and cold.
In this case, an imperial doctor could be sent over to take a look and prescribe a prescription to clear away heat and relieve the symptoms. However, the queen was worried that others were not safe enough, so she sent a servant to call Xin Zhongshu and asked him to diagnose and treat the emperor.
The old doctor was very familiar with the matter. He only took Li Bing's pulse and understood this minor illness. He scrawled a pharmacy and ordered the imperial doctor's office to prepare the medicine and brew it. Before leaving, the old man smiled confidently and said to Li Bing that Your Majesty only needs to drink the medicine once and keep the medicine until the illness is cured.
But unexpectedly, Li Bing drank the decoction after dinner according to the doctor's advice. Within half an hour, he complained of abdominal pain and rolled on the couch.
When the imperial doctors on duty came to check in a panic, they found that Li Bing had begun to vomit blood and was feeling dizzy and almost comatose.
Several imperial doctors were almost frightened to death and rushed to rescue him. It took them more than two hours to pull the emperor back from the gate of hell.
The head chamberlain took the imperial doctors to a quiet place and asked them carefully what was going on. Doctors, look at me and I look at you. It took a long time to hold back two words: Poisoning.
Poisoned? !
The head chamberlain became anxious on the spot, this was regicide and rebellion! He immediately called the commander of Jinwu Guard and informed him that the emperor had been poisoned. The commander of the Jinwu Guards panicked when he heard this and did not dare to neglect at all. He immediately notified the Nilin Division.
Tian Mu and Ouyang Lin rushed over and asked the imperial doctor for details. After a brief investigation, they found that the problem was with the prescription.
In the prescription prescribed by the old doctor Xin Zhongshu, there are two herbs that conflict with each other. Once mixed, they can become toxic. Moreover, the dosage listed by Doctor Xin was also different from the ordinary standards. To put it bluntly, the poison was heavy and the amount was large.
Ouyang Lin became anxious on the spot and asked several imperial doctors. They usually prescribe medicines to important royal families such as emperors and empresses. Don't they all need to be cross-checked by other imperial doctors first, and then the medicine is prepared and boiled after confirmation?
The imperial doctors looked at each other in confusion, and no one dared to speak. In the end, the steward who stood aside explained to them: Xin Zhongshu is the chief physician, and the doctors in the imperial medical hall are basically his apprentices, or even his disciples. Therefore, no one dared to check the prescriptions written by Mr. Xin himself.
"Is this okay?!" Ouyang Lin angrily shouted: "It is related to the safety of the emperor's dragon body, how dare you be so careless, the Imperial Medical Center deserves to be damned!"
Tian Mu said quietly: "The most important issue at the moment is to quickly control Xin Zhongshu. Whether this is someone else's old fool, a momentary mistake, or an intentional attempt to harm the king, we must find out."
The commander of Jinwu Guard nodded repeatedly and ordered his men to immediately surround the Xin family and capture Xin Zhongshu. Tian Mu also said that this matter related to the emperor, and investigating cases was the specialty of Nilin Division. They would send people to accompany him. After catching Xin Zhongshu, they would have to take him back to Beiya for interrogation.
Everyone had no objection to this and took action immediately.
Jin Wuwei personally took action, sent troops to surround Xin Zhongshu's house, and tied up the old man. The old doctor looked confused. When he heard that he was arrested because the emperor was poisoned by the prescription and almost died, he was even more shocked.
"Impossible! I have been practicing medicine all my life and have never made a mistake. What's more, when it comes to the health of His Majesty's dragon body, all the medicinal materials are soft and gentle, and there is no reason to conflict with each other!"
"If you have anything to say, let's talk about it in Beiya. We'll find out if it was you who did it!"
Jinwuwei ignored Xin Zhongshu's protest and took him directly back to Beiya Nilinsi. There, Xin Zhongshu finally saw the prescription list that put him in jail.
The old man held the prescription in his hand, read it over and over again three times, and suddenly shouted in disbelief: "This... this is not what I prescribed before! Although the handwriting is indeed my handwriting, this prescription is wrong. It’s impossible for me to write like this!”
However, no matter how Xin Zhongshu explained it, the prescription, the paper, the handwriting, and the time number registered in the imperial medical office were all verified to be correct. It was the diagnosis and treatment plan he left after consulting Li Bing that day.
The evidence is conclusive and irrefutable.
Xin Zhongshu was completely confused. Facing the aggressive questioning from Beiya Nilin Division, he himself couldn't help but become a little confused: What on earth is going on? Am I really that old and confused?
With this question in mind, Dr. Xin was temporarily imprisoned, waiting for further questioning and investigation by the palace and the court.
But unexpectedly, he died suddenly on the night he was imprisoned.
There were no obvious injuries on the body, and there were no signs of poisoning. Several men studied for a long time and came to the same conclusion: Xin Zhongshu was old. When he learned that he had almost killed the emperor, he was so shocked and frightened that he died of fright on the spot. .
News of the old doctor's death soon spread throughout the court. The ministers did not care how he died, but they all speculated whether the fatal prescription was an unintentional mistake or a deliberate mistake.
If it was intentional, who was the mastermind behind it?
