Mei Fangxi was suddenly startled. He stared at Hua Manting with his old eyes widened. After a moment, he asked in a low voice in disbelief:
"Then the eldest son of the emperor is not the son of Emperor Zhaohua?"
"You mean...the person who killed Queen Lu was also the Emperor of Zhaohua?!"
Hua Manting nodded slightly: "That's right!"
Mei Fangxi was dumbfounded: "But in the first year of Zhaohua, when she married Emperor Zhaohua, Ning Jingrong was already imprisoned in Luoying Palace!"
"He was imprisoned, but he didn't die! Someone helped Queen Lu go to Luoying Palace many times."
"...Who is so brave?"
"Fan Taohua!"
Mei Fangxi took a breath of cold air:
"This...how do you know?"
"On the night when Lu Zhanxiao's entire family was wiped out, a man escaped from Luoying Palace. His name was Ning Jingyu!"
"He is in Sifeng City in Yue Kingdom. Wen Boyu went to meet him. If you don't believe it, you can go to Sifeng City to find Ning Jingyu and ask him!"
Mei Fangxi asked again at this moment: "Why did Fan Taohua do this?"
"Because Fan Taohua owes Ning Jingrong a favor! She was able to marry Zhong Lipo back then because Ning Jingrong facilitated it!"
"Ning Jingrong was still young at that time!"
"It is precisely because Ning Jingrong is young that Ning Jingrong is deeply loved by Emperor Jingtai. He asked for the decree from Emperor Jingtai!"
"Fan Taohua was grateful to Ning Jingrong, but she didn't expect that there would be a big problem when the throne was passed on."
"There's nothing she can do about it."
"Ning Jingrong was imprisoned in Luoying Palace by Emperor Zhaohua, and he issued an order to Shangchehou Mansion to marry Lu Yueting as his wife and make her the queen..."
"Lu Yueting was about to commit suicide, but Fan Taohua persuaded her to do so."
"She married Emperor Zhaohua and became the queen of Ning State. She gained three years to get into the Chehou Mansion!"
"In the winter of the third year of Zhaohua, I got on the train and waited with the intention of plotting rebellion, which played into the hands of Emperor Zhaohua."
"As soon as the Scarlet Flame Army left Wuya Pass, Emperor Zhaohua knew the news. He took a preemptive strike and stunned all the masters in Lu Zhanxiao's house with blur, and killed Lu Zhanxiao's entire family in one fell swoop!"
"Then, Emperor Zhaohua used Empress Lu's life as a threat to force the Red Flame Army to retreat, and asked Lu Hou, the then general of the Red Flame Army, to return to Kyoto to plead guilty."
"Lu Hou committed suicide in front of the gate of Shanchehou Mansion."
"The Lu family... no longer poses a threat to Emperor Zhaohua."
"Empress Lu knew that the situation was over, so she sent her personal maid Siqin to the Dingguo Hou Mansion and gave Fan Taohua a letter."
"So, Fan Taohua asked He Xishan and Qin Huaiyu to fight on the top of the Forbidden City. That battle attracted the attention of the masters in the palace. She went to the palace, and she used blur to arrange Emperor Zhaohua to be with Empress Lu All the masters around him were knocked down and the child was taken away!"
"That period of history is roughly like this."
Mei Fangxi was already dumbfounded.
He knew that Lu Zhanxiao had a different intention to avenge Ning Jingrong when he got into Chehou Mansion and was destroyed. Now it seems that this was half right!
The reason why he is half right is that there may be another factor why Lu Zhanxiao wanted to rebel back then——
He found out that his sister Lu Yueting was pregnant with Ning Jingrong's child!
Emperor Zhaohua probably also realized that the child in Lu Yueting's belly was not his.
Lu Zhanxiao must rebel!
Because he has no other choice.
Therefore, he started the incident in a hurry, so that the Red Flame Army was too busy leaving Wuya Pass and failed to hide its whereabouts.
So, could this be done intentionally by Emperor Zhaohua?
Probably not.
As an emperor, he would never accept the ploy of using a cuckold to force someone to rebel in the chariot.
Perhaps it was because of this blow that Emperor Zhaohua became disheartened and built Changle Palace.
It’s just that Emperor Zhaohua didn’t know where Empress Lu’s son was until his death.
This was a disgrace to the royal family, so it naturally became a secret past event.
"Where did Fan Taohua send the child?"
"He stayed at Dingguohou's Mansion, and after the incident on boarding the train at the Mansion calmed down, he handed the child over to He Xishan."
"He Xishan brought the child to Shuzhou... After that, Fan Taohua began to run Shuzhou."
"For this reason, Fan Taohua asked Yuan Su to leave the Shenwu Army, and Yuan Su trained an army of 50,000 people in Shuzhou, called the Shenwu Army."
"This army was left by Fan Taohua to the eldest son of the emperor!"
"She firmly believes that the throne of Ning State should be inherited by Ning Jingrong's blood!"
Mei Fangxi took a sip of wine and said, "Li Chenan is here to welcome back the eldest son of the emperor... Although Li Chenan is indeed suspected of shocking the emperor with his outstanding achievements, Li Chenan has no intention of becoming the emperor!"
"Can't they just talk?"
"What I mean is that Li Chenan has to go to Wu State for Zhongli Ruoshui. He can't take care of Ning State's affairs at all. He can be frank with the eldest son of the emperor...can't he live in peace?"
Hua Manting stroked his long beard and smiled: "That is imperial power!"
"Imperial power is supreme and unique, and there is no such thing as peaceful coexistence!"
"If the eldest son of the emperor wants to sit firmly on the throne and hold on to power, he must kill Li Chenan... Fan Taohua obviously knows that, so she asked Li Chenan to come to Shuzhou... not to let Li Chenan welcome back the emperor. The eldest son, bury Li Chenan in Shuzhou instead!"
Mei Fangxi interrupted Hua Manting: "This doesn't make sense. If Fan Taohua wanted to kill Li Chenan, he could have killed Li Chenan in Kyoto while she was still alive!"
Hua Manting stroked her long beard and said something similar to Huang Sanlie:
"She wants to use Li Chenan's life and death to lure Xi Wei."
"In Shuzhou, it is the most foolproof place to kill Xi Wei and Li Chenan!"
"...Can Zhongli Ruoshui's disease?"
Hua Manting shook his head: "It is inherently incurable, and no one can practice the Non-Er Zhou Tian Jue to the Great Perfection."
Mei Fangxi took a deep breath, and there was a trace of deep worry in her old eyes.
It’s similar to Liu Zuizhi’s idea.
After listening to Hua Manting's story about Li Chenan's strategies for governing the country, he felt that although those strategies had flaws, they could not hide their flaws and were of great benefit to Ning Guo.
He also liked Li Chenan's poems and articles very much, and felt that if such a young man could master the rudder of Ningguo, he might be able to lead Ningguo to an unprecedented brilliance.
No one knows what happened to the eldest son of the emperor.
Then it is obvious that Li Chenan ascending the throne as emperor is the best choice.
"Why don't you tell Li Chenan directly about this?"
"I think he hasn't passed the Jianmen Pass yet. Wouldn't it be better if you tell him and he goes back home to avoid this murderous situation?"
Hua Manting picked up the wine glass and took a sip, "The people in Zhongli Mansion still don't know that Fan Taohua wants to kill Li Chenan and Xi Wei."
"I'm very curious about what triggered Fan Taohua's killing spree."
"I'm also very curious about who the eldest son of the emperor is!"
"Fan Taohua wants to use the eldest son of the emperor and Zhongli Ruoshui as bait to lure Li Chenan into Shuzhou... I also want to use Li Chenan to fish out the eldest son of the emperor!"
"The eldest son of the emperor must die!"
Hua Manting put down her wine glass with a serious face: "Just like Fan Taohua thinks Li Chenan must die!"
Mei Fangxi frowned: "You lunatic!"
"Li Chenxi, Li Wenhou's eldest son, came to my place just now. Li Wenhou asked me to go to Jianmen Pass to stop Li Chenan... You have told me so much, what do you want me to do?"
"What can I do?"
Hua Manting grinned: "Don't stop Li Chenan."
"I hope you can sharpen your sword and then go to Xishan to do something for me!"
"……What's up?"
"The peach blossoms in the Western Hills are in full bloom."
"You just drink a pot of wine, recite a poem, and kill the peach blossoms all over the mountain!"
PS: Chapter 3, I really can’t afford it.
Also, I really like Mao Da’s work with this last tone, the pictures are so beautiful.
Thank you book friends for your love!
I will write slowly next, and you will read slowly.
