"As long as you don't ascend to the throne, those troubles will never end. And as long as you ascend the throne as emperor, naturally all the troubles will no longer be troubles!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile.
"Yes, it is true!" Li Hong sighed: "But Aweng is still here, and I am the son of a man, how can I seize the throne?"
"You can just let the Emperor be the Supreme Emperor and rest in the Daming Palace!" Wang Wenzuo said: "Actually, this is what the Emperor means when he asks you to supervise the country! It's nothing more than multiple names, but it's not convenient if the name is not correct. You are obviously the prince, but you are To exercise the power of the Emperor, there are no two days in the sky and no two masters in the country, but now the Tang Dynasty has two masters. You are not worthy of your name, and this is the real reason why you have so much trouble around you!"
"What about grandma?"
"Naturally, she will also retreat to the Daming Palace with the emperor to rest!" Wang Wenzuo said: "The queen's use of power is an expedient measure because the emperor is seriously ill and the prince is still young. Now that the prince is strong, has profound virtues, and has returned to China and foreign countries, how can he continue to give in to the throne? What is the reason for the queen to govern? I'm just telling you this, if the mountain collapses, will the prince succeed to the throne or the queen will become the emperor?"
"Hahaha!" Li Hong couldn't help laughing when he heard Wang Wenzuo talking about the queen becoming emperor: "Sanlang is talking nonsense again. Is there any reason for a woman to become emperor since ancient times? But I understand what you mean. Indeed, this paragraph Over time, all kinds of chaos inside and outside Chang'an City have been revealed, which is why some people are not in their rightful place. But why didn't you tell me, and you were not willing to tell me until I asked you today?"
"The prince is benevolent and filial. Even though he knows that he should do this, he probably can't bear to do it!" Wang Wenzuo said: "Since the prince can't bear to do it, how can I force you to do it? If the prince hadn't asked in person today, I wouldn't have said anything no matter how long it took!"
"You're right, this kind of thing is really not something that a human minister can say!" Li Hong sighed: "Let me ask you, Sanlang, if I agree, how sure are you?"
"How sure are you?" Wang Wenzuo said with a proud smile: "Your Highness, you should ask me how long it will take before I can ascend to the throne of God! As for the certainty! I can't just say it, there is always 95%!"
"Ninety-five percent?" Li Hong was surprised: "This, this is no joke!"
"How dare I make a joke about such an important matter?" Wang Wenzuo said solemnly: "The emperor's holy body is not hesitant. There is no one in the throne. The sacred weapon must not be without its owner. The throne cannot be left vacant for a long time. The prince is kind and wise. He has already returned home from abroad. The world wants to do something for him. There are countless people who have died in the East Palace, and I am not the only one. I obey the heaven and respond to the people. I only need to raise my arms and shout, and the responders will naturally gather, so what's the difficulty?"
Listening to Wang Wenzuo's words, Li Hong's expression changed. Since ancient times, there is no prince who does not want to be the emperor one day sooner. This does not mean that all princes are greedy for power and destroy the relationship between father and son, but that this prince is neither a king nor a king. If you are not a minister, it is like a person being suspended in mid-air with no whereabouts, and everyone wants to stab you. If the rope breaks, you will fall to death. It is extremely uncomfortable. And no one knows when this situation will end. As long as the father does not die, the son will always be hanging in mid-air. If he does well, he will be afraid of his father's suspicion, and if he does poorly, he will be afraid that he will feel that he is not capable of taking responsibility. No one can bear the feeling of not being able to afford a family fortune. Of course Li Hong is no exception, and besides having a father, he also has a mother who is a hundred times more difficult to deal with than his father. His desire to get rid of this state will only become stronger, but this desire has been suppressed by Confucianism for many years. Education had suppressed it, but this time it was brought out by Wang Wenzuo, which became even stronger.
"Sanlang, this matter is of great importance, let us think about it further!" Li Hong said in a low voice.
"It doesn't matter!" Wang Wenzuo didn't urge him: "No matter what choice His Highness makes, I will be loyal to His Highness!"
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Daming Palace, Hanyuan Hall.
"So, are you sure that He Lan Minzhi was wrongly accused?" the queen asked.
"Exactly!" Zhou Xing pulled out several confessions from his sleeve: "Your Majesty, please see, these are the confessions of the ladies who attended the banquet that night. Six of them admitted that they had a private meeting with Duke Zhou during the banquet. They have been lingering for a long time. Yang Sijian said that Duke Zhou forced his daughter to rape. I thought that even if Duke Zhou was a man of steel, after having a private meeting with six women during the banquet, he would probably not be able to force Yang Sijian's daughter to rape that night!"
"Bah!" The Queen flipped through the confession above and saw that it was written in quite detail. She explained all the details of the private meeting clearly. At the end, there was also the woman's fingerprint. She couldn't help but spit out and secretly cursed her nephew's absurdity. . She was already in her fifties at this time, and of course she knew everything about men and women. Helan Minzhi was almost thirty, and he had sex with six women in a row at a banquet, got very drunk, and then went to force her to do something in the middle of the night. He was a man of gods who raped Yang Sijian's daughter.
"You did a good job, but it is not appropriate to talk about this kind of thing in public. It would be disrespectful to the court!" The queen put the confession into her sleeve.
"What your Majesty said is true, so after I got the confession, I took it out and sent it directly to you without filing it!" Zhou Xing said.
"Since my nephew was unjustly killed, then what Yang Sijian and Wang Wenzuo told are lies!" The queen sneered: "Wang Wenzuo went out of the city with the prince. You first put Yang Sijian in prison. As for Wang Wenzuo, wait until Yang Sijian confesses before leaving. Take him! He deceived me and also deceived the prince, let’s see how he gets away with it this time!”
"I obey the decree!" Zhou Xing lowered his head, his eyes flashing with excitement.
"Yang Sijian has a special status. You'd better not use people from the Ministry of Punishment to avoid leaks! Also, three days are enough to obtain Yang Sijian's confession?"
"That's enough!" Zhou Xing said loudly, "Your Majesty, please rest assured!"
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Qunxianfang, Fangxiangsi.
The sky in Chang'an in the summer afternoon was gloomy, the hot and humid air was pressing on everyone's heads, and the cicadas on the trees were not as noisy as usual and made no sound. Pedestrians on the road quickened their pace in order to get home before the heavy rain fell from the sky.
An Wuniang was marinating rabbit meat for dinner with her Tuyuhun slave girl at the stove. She looked worriedly at the sky outside the window. If it rained heavily, there wouldn't be many guests at night. Come on, wouldn’t this rabbit meat be wasted in vain? She was hesitating whether to marinate all the rabbit meat in the pottery, when someone rushed in from outside. When she took a closer look, it was Chen Qi. She hurriedly greeted him: "Master, why are you acting like this today?" Are you back a long time ago? Is the Yamen okay?"
"No, get some water first, there's smoke coming out of your throat! I'm going out soon!"
"Hey, Ah Chun, bring the kettle from the back room! And put the rabbit meat in the pottery bowl on the stove to heat it up for the master to eat!" Wu Niang dragged a bench from the side and asked Chen Qi to sit on it. Next, he patted the dust on the other person's shoulder.
"There is no need to heat up food. I have to leave immediately. There is something urgent in the Yamen!" Chen Qi looked at no one around him and lowered his voice and said, "Go to Wang's house immediately and give Li Bo and Li Langjun a gift." The message was that Zhou Xing had received the Queen’s order and was going to get Yang Sijian immediately!”
"Send a message!" An Wuniang was surprised: "What if I go to the store for business? Won't Li Langjun come to the store in a day or two? If I tell him then, it will be done?"
"Time is tight. If we wait for Li Langjun to come, I'm afraid things will go wrong!" Chen Qi took the kettle from the slave girl and took a big sip: "You go right away. Remember, Zhou Xing has received the queen's order and is going to arrest him. Yang Sijian!" After saying that, he put down the kettle and walked out the door.
"Hey, the master!" An Wuniang followed her out. She was about to shout, but she saw that Chen Qi had already walked away. She paused, thought for a moment and said to her slave girl: " I have to go out for something, please close the door first and wait until I come back to talk about business!"
"Hey, the master!" An Wuniang followed her out. She was about to shout, but she saw that Chen Qi had already walked away. She paused, thought for a moment and said to her slave girl: " I have to go out for something, please close the door first and wait until I come back to talk about business!"
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The palace.
"What? Zhou Xing got the queen's order and went to arrest Yang Sijian?" Cui Hongdu was surprised: "Is this true?"
"The head of my family works as an errand at the Wannian County Yamen. He just came back to the store and said that he had a drink of water and left!" An Wuniang said: "Originally, Li Bo and Li Langjun would come to the store every two days to listen to his messages. The head of the family He said that this matter cannot be delayed, so he asked me to come to your house immediately, ignoring the business in the store! "
"You did a good job!" Cui Hongdu had already heard the implication of An Wuniang's words and said with a smile: "Come here, take twenty pieces of money to reward her. Wuniang, if you have any important news, please send it as soon as possible. We will never You will suffer a loss!"
"Thank you Cui Langjun!" An Wuniang hurriedly bowed with her hands folded, received the reward and stepped back. As soon as she left, Cui Hongdu's expression became solemn. Although he didn't know everything that happened that night, he also knew what Zhou Xing meant by taking Yang Sijian. After thinking about it for a while, he made up his mind: "Someone will prepare the horse, I will We need to leave the city immediately."
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Late at night, Weibei camp.
Prince Li Hong was lying on the couch with his eyes slightly closed, and the sound of rustling rain could be heard outside the tent. The words Wang Wenzuo said to him not long ago were still lingering in his ears, making him unable to sleep. After analyzing all the pros and cons, Wang Wenzuo handed the final decision back to himself, which made him feel that his shoulders were extremely heavy. He had never made such an important decision in his life. Not only his own life, but also the fate of those around him and even the entire empire depended on his words. He rolled over, but that only made him feel more uncomfortable, and eventually he sat up from the couch, intending to go out for some air.
"Your Highness!"
Li Hong thought it might be his auditory hallucination, but the next second he confirmed that he heard correctly: "Is it Saburo? What's the matter?"
"Emergency news has arrived in Chang'an!"
"Then come in and talk!" No longer having to face everything alone, Li Hong couldn't help but let out a long breath secretly.
The curtain at the entrance of the tent was opened, and the prince was surprised to see Wang Wenzuo dressed in armor. He had not seen Wang Wenzuo dressed like this for a long time. He suddenly realized what he was about to face, and his body couldn't help but tremble slightly: "What's going on in Chang'an?" misfortune?"
Wang Wenzuo nodded and said in a low voice: "This matter is urgent, please keep your highness aside!"
The prince waved his hand and asked the two eunuchs in the tent to retreat. He took a deep breath to calm down as much as possible: "Tell me, what happened?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, I originally placed a few agents around Zhou Xing to prepare for emergencies! Yesterday evening, my subordinates who stayed in the city got the news that the queen had ordered Zhou Xing to take Siwei Shaoqing Yang Sijian into prison! I'm subordinates have After learning about it, I left the city overnight and rushed to Weibei Hunting Garden to inform the minister. After I learned about it, I came to see His Highness and asked for your instructions on how to behave!"
"Mother ordered Zhou Xing to imprison Yang Gong? Why is this?" The prince was completely confused, his mind was in chaos, and he looked at Wang Wenzuo for help.
"It can only be because of He Lan Minzhi's matter!" Wang Wenzuo said: "It can only be because of this, and there is no other reason!"
"Yes, yes, it must be because of this!" The prince also came to his senses and paused: "How could mother do this? Although He Lan Minzhi was killed by Mr. Yang, there was a reason for it. How can I take revenge? I will definitely take revenge after returning to the city. Tell your mother to let her go immediately!"
"Your Highness, I'm afraid things are not as simple as you think!" Wang Wenzuo said.
"What's the meaning?"
"Your Highness, of course the queen knows that you are actually apologetic to Duke Yang because of his daughter! If Zhou Xing is asked to take someone, and you let him go after you go back, what's the use? The queen will not do this. It’s a matter of fact, and why didn’t the Queen let Zhou Xing take the person earlier and later, but she decided to take the person when you were not in Chang’an City? Do you think this is a coincidence?”
"Sanlang means that mother has other plans?" the prince asked.
"Yes, and I think the queen wants to get something from Mr. Yang. With this, the queen can decide the overall situation. Even you can only accept it and cannot change it!"
"What do you get from Mr. Yang? I can only accept it and cannot change it?" The prince frowned, confused by Wang Wenzuo's words. He was already the prince and was ordered to supervise the country. What could he do in the Tang Dynasty that would allow him to just What if you can accept it but cannot change it?
"I can only accept it and cannot change it?" The prince frowned, confused by Wang Wenzuo's words: "But I am already the prince, and I have been ordered to supervise the country!"
"What if you are no longer the prince?" Wang Wenzuo sneered.
"I'm no longer the prince?" The prince's eyes widened and he trembled: "How is this possible?"
"What other explanation can there be other than this?" Wang Wenzuo asked: "If the queen was really sure of dealing with Yang Sijian, why didn't she wait for you to return to the city and show the voucher in your hand before going to get Yang Sijian? What if you do it when you are not in the city?"
The prince's expression changed from surprise to despair, from despair to indifference, and finally he sighed and said: "Sanlang, what do you think we should do now?"
"Your Highness should know my answer!" Wang Wenzuo said.
"Return to the city to raise troops and ascend the throne as emperor?" The prince smiled bitterly: "Then if I refuse, what will you do, Sanlang?"
Wang Wenzuo knelt down and bowed twice: "God has sent me to meet your Highness, and I have been greatly favored by dying in service. The misfortune is imminent, but Your Highness still does not worry about it. Your Highness is willing to take it lightly, just like the ancestral temple and the country! Your Highness does not need Wen Zuo. As you say, I will change my appearance and run around in the grass. I cannot stay with His Highness. I will stretch my neck to be killed!"
