Chapter 45 Section VI

The emperor's time is numbered. No one dared to bring up the topic openly, but it spread like a pervasive wind, fast and unstoppable.There was deep anxiety in the eyes of everyone in Daming Palace.Of course, what made them panic was not the life and death of the emperor, but their own future. Bloodshed is unavoidable at every regime change.Even if the power is handed over smoothly according to the regulations, some people will still be ruthlessly sacrificed in the process.The closer you get to power, the deeper this experience becomes. The grand occasion of welcoming the Buddha's bones on the Shangyuan Festival and Jin Qiu's victory in pacifying the last vassal town were all forgotten, and now the Daming Palace is filled with only the anxiety and uneasiness that can't be avoided all day long.

Soon, the confrontation between the two groups brought this panic directly to the table. One of them is Tu Tu Cheng Cui.Not long after the emperor dismissed the court due to illness and disappeared from the presence of his officials, Tutu Chengcui began to jump up and down, trying to connect everywhere to seek the replacement of the crown prince.Tutu Chengcui has always been at odds with Concubine Guo, and has never shown due respect to the current prince Li Heng.After the death of the former prince Li Ning, Tutu Chengcui has always supported Li Li Wang Li Yun as the prince.As the emperor's confidant, what Tutu Chengcui represents is actually the emperor's proposition.At the end of the tenth year of Yuanhe, under the pressure of all parties, the mystery of the true and false "Lanting Preface" tore apart the bloody inside story of Li Tang's succession to the throne, and the emperor had no choice but to make Li Heng, the son of Concubine Guo Guifei, the crown prince. , Temporarily quelled the dispute over Li Chu.Unexpectedly, in less than five years, Tutu Chengcui once again put on a posture that will surely overthrow him to the ground.

Still the same sentence, standing behind Tutu Chengcui is the emperor. The other group of people on the other side is Prince Li Heng and Concubine Guo Gui behind him.There was a lot of trouble here at Tu Tu Cheng Cui, and everyone knew that the emperor wanted to change the reserve.Although the abolition of the crown prince will cause earthquakes, which has always been a taboo of the imperial court, but Tutu Chengcui's desperate efforts to create a general trend still increase the pressure on the crown prince and Concubine Guo.Compared with the domestic and foreign troubles in the ten years of Yuanhe, the current situation has completely tilted towards the emperor: the feudal clan has been successfully reduced, the foreign troubles have been eliminated, and the holy hope is on the rise. Both the court and the opposition are sincerely obedient to him, and even Li Wang Li Yun himself has a very good character Known for.As long as the support of the vast majority of courtiers can be obtained, the exchange of reserves will be a matter of course.

What Tutu Chengcui is doing is laying the groundwork and testing the waters. Once the conditions are ripe, with the emperor's courageous personality, he will definitely make a decisive decision. The prince Li Heng went to his father's palace to go to Risheng according to the rules, but he couldn't even see the emperor's face. When he returned to the Shaoyang courtyard, he could only sigh and fidget.The prince was confined in the Shaoyang Courtyard of Daming Palace, and could only meet a group of eunuchs and court ladies face to face every day, unable to make friends with courtiers or even people in the world, let alone form his own influence.Once an accident occurs, it will become a fish on a knife and be slaughtered by others.

At this time, there were very few important ministers who came to visit the prince without avoiding suspicion, so when Jing Zhao Yin Guo Wei appeared, Li Heng almost cried. "Uncle, what should I do?" the prince asked nonchalantly. Guo Wei sighed, the crown prince's status was threatened, what else could he do besides comforting him a few words?So he said: "Now all the prince can do is to be filial to the sage. Apart from serving meals and greetings, His Royal Highness, don't think wildly." "This..." Li Heng inherited his parents' good looks, and he can be called a handsome prince, but his personality is rather weak and loose, and he has no idea when things happen, so he doesn't like his father with a strong temperament.

From Guo Wei's point of view, his nephew was spoiled by his sister Guo Nianyun since he was a child.In fact, Li Heng is kind-hearted and loves poetry and prose. Although he is not as talented as the current emperor, he is still a good person.With such a disposition, it is more than enough to be a Lord of Peace. "I see!" Li Heng suddenly turned from worry to joy, "Did my mother ask uncle to tell me because she was afraid that I would be worried?" "Your mother?" "Yes. My mother once told me that to avoid suspicion, I should not go to the Longevity Institute to find her. But she also said that everything will be arranged properly, so I don't have to worry about anything."

Guo Wei frowned: Everything will be arranged properly?What is my sister thinking?Could it be that she... A chill spread across Guo Yu's back. Besides Prince Li Heng, there was another person in the Daming Palace who felt great worries about the future. To be more precise, Liu Mi, the national teacher, felt that he was on the verge of life and death, and that he might die an ugly death at any time, and he would also be given an eternal infamy. Concubine Guo Gui was so vicious that she coerced her into poisoning the emperor's elixir. She also hinted that only after the emperor ascended to the throne, the new emperor would reward her for her merits, and Liu Mi could still continue her prosperity and wealth in the new dynasty.

Liu Bi could not believe these promises! The emperor was still in his heyday, and he was greatly supported.Once the emperor dies, if someone investigates the cause of his death, Liu Mi will definitely become the target of public criticism.Thinking that after the death of Emperor Taizong, some people wanted to arrest the Tianzhu magician who offered alchemy, falsely claiming that he was the one who killed Emperor Taizong.In fact, Emperor Taizong was seriously ill at that time, and the imperial doctor was at a loss what to do, so he went to a stranger from Tianzhu for medicine.The elixir that blamed the death of Emperor Taizong on the Tianzhu people was, on the one hand, the imperial doctor's attempt to shirk responsibility, and on the other hand, it was also Emperor Gaozong's heartbroken reaction to the death of his father.Fortunately, the Tianzhu man ran so fast that he was not caught, and finally it was nothing.

Now Liu Mi can't even escape, because he is in the palace confinement, there is no way to escape.He also can't count on Concubine Guo Gui.If the Dongchuang incident happened, it would be the easiest way to throw Liu Bi out to take the blame. Guo Nianyun would not only be able to protect himself, but also remove a hidden danger, so why not do it. Liu Mi finally began to understand that the best way to save the emperor's life is to prolong his life, at least the emperor still believes in his elixir.Once the emperor died, no one could protect him anymore. It's a pity that the situation is no longer under Liu Mi's control, even Princess Yong'an, who has always been submissive to him, has changed her face, making excuses one after another not to come to Sanqing Palace to learn Taoism.Although the person came today, he was listless, as if he was reluctant to die.

Liu Biduan said in the air of a foreign teacher: "Your Highness, the princess, you still have to look good when you learn the Tao." After a moment of silence, Princess Yong'an said: "Then forget it. I don't want to come again in the future." She got up and wanted to leave. "Wait!" Liu Bi shouted, "You want to leave?" "Can't you?" Yong'an also became arrogant. Liu Bi gasped at the bullfight: "Hmph, does Her Royal Highness want to turn her face and deny anyone? Have you forgotten everything that happened a few months ago?"

"No, I haven't forgotten at all, on the contrary, I remember very clearly! I remember your rampant face of being a villain, and I still remember your wretched appearance of being overconfident and wanting to climb the dragon and the phoenix. You are just a lowly charlatan. A few pills bewitched the emperor, thinking that he could ascend to the sky, go dreaming!" Liu Bi was so angry that she even forgot to refute. Princess Yong'an scolded more and more vigorously: "Following you will not learn the way of immortality, but will only be contaminated with bad smell! I am here today to tell you that I will never step into this Palace of Sanqing again!" "You!" Liu Bi finally came back to his senses, and smiled angrily, "Okay, Her Royal Highness, who is really a golden branch and jade leaf, is so noble and inviolable! It's just that I don't know, the one who pretended to beg for mercy and begged me back then Who is it that I said a few good words in front of the Holy One?" "Did you say it?" Yong'an pressed. "If I say it, how can I be worthy of Your Highness's wonderful speech?" Liu Mi kept leaning in front of Yong'an, "Does Your Highness still expect me to say it?" "Slap!" A slap hit him firmly in the face. Princess Yong'an tremblingly said: "Brother Huang is about to be killed by you!" When she returned to Yuchenguan, Princess Yong'an was still in a turbulent mood. She wanted to scold and beat people when she saw someone, and wanted to make a big scene regardless of her status and face.Back in the room, Yong'an drove all the maids out of the palace, and the tears that had been held back for a long time burst out of his eyes. After crying for a long time, she gradually calmed down, but a strange feeling arose in her heart—there was someone in the room! Pei Xuanjing sat upright under the window, watching her calmly. "Ah!" Princess Yong'an suddenly raised her hand to cover her mouth, and forced an exclamation back. "You...why are you here?" Yong'an asked a few times, only to realize that Pei Xuanjing couldn't answer himself at all, so he sneered, "These dead slaves can't even be dealt with by a mute!" Pei Xuanjing picked up a pen and wrote a few words on the paper. Princess Yong'an sat across from her, and saw the writing on the paper: "From the Hall of Sanqing?" "Yes, I made it clear to Liu Bi that I will never go there again!" Pei Xuanjing wrote again: "How is he?" "Him? He should be able to think about his end, but he has nowhere to go. It's really funny!" Princess Yong'an really laughed intermittently, looking a little crazy. Pei Xuanjing looked at her and didn't pick up a pen to write again. Finally stopped laughing, Princess Yong'an said again: "Liu Mi must be regretting to death now. At first, I only wanted to use the elixir to confuse the emperor, so that I could make a fortune, but unexpectedly I overdid it, and the emperor was addicted to the golden elixir. Humph! Liu Bi is also panicking now. If something happens to the emperor, let alone his glory and wealth, he will not even be able to save his life. But the matter has come to this point, and it is absolutely impossible to get out now. So he knew There is only a dead end in front of me, but I can only go on with the courage. Hehe, you don't know how happy I am when I see his lost dog today!" Pei Xuanjing started writing again. Princess Yong'an took the paper and read: "Your Highness, are you worried about the Holy One?" "Is it useful to worry about me? What kind of person is the emperor? Will he listen to what other people say? The golden core is harmful, and no one in the Daming Palace knows it. If nothing else, just look at those who can't leave even after nine cold winters." The ice..." She shook her head desolately, "Even though the emperor is the son of heaven, he is still a body of flesh and blood, how can he bear it! But, who dares to mention a word to him?" Pei Xuanjing stared at Princess Yong'an without blinking. "Are you talking about me?" Yong'an understood what she meant, "Brother Huang won't listen to me. As for other people, such as Concubine Guo Gui, they have ulterior motives. If you want me to say, she wished that Brother Huang died sooner." What!" She was going all out today, and she had nothing to hide from Pei Xuanjing.After all, in Daming Palace, Pei Xuanjing was a trustworthy person, such a person was almost unique. Yongan continued: "Actually, I don't want anything to happen to Brother Huang... Although he is ruthless to me, he is my real brother after all. If someone else sits in that position, my situation will only be more miserable. But what can I do? What? Fate should be like this, we have to accept our fate.” Pei Xuanjing ignited the paper she had just written on the candle, watched it burn to ashes, and then picked up the pen again and wrote it on a new piece of paper. Princess Yong'an took a look, but saw that it said: "The Holy Majesty knows." "Known?" She asked Pei Xuanjing, "What does the emperor know?" Pei Xuanjing wrote again: "The golden core is harmful." Princess Yong'an was stunned for a moment, and said: "But Liu Mi has already prevaricated with the theory of turning bones into immortals, otherwise the emperor would not insist on taking the pill so far." Pei Xuanjing shook her head, and added two big words under "Golden Elixir is harmful": poisonous. "You mean... Brother Huang knows that the golden elixir is poisonous?" Pei Xuanjing nodded solemnly. "Then why does he still take pills? Harmful and poisonous are two different things!" Princess Yong'an cried out in a low voice, "He can't be so confused!" She looked at Pei Xuanjing's expression, and suddenly took a breath, "You It means that he, he himself thinks..." She really didn't have the guts to say that word—death. After a long time, she struggled to ask, "Why?" This time Pei Xuanjing wrote very slowly, one stroke at a time, as if the pen in her hand was extremely heavy, but she wrote very resolutely, without any hesitation. She only wrote four words and put the pen down. Princess Yong'an held the paper in front of her eyes. Although her hands were shaking so badly that the four characters almost overlapped to form eight characters, she could still see clearly.No, don't read, she also knows what Pei Xuanjing wrote. "The death of the first emperor." Princess Yong'an sat motionless for a long time, her eyes seemed to be glued to these four words. Pei Xuanjing also sat motionless opposite, waiting.She has plenty of patience.After the alternation of life and death, hope and despair, no force can shake her determination.Pei Xuanjing is determined to uncover the truth about the death of the former emperor. Cui Miao was still alive, and when Pei Xuanjing confirmed this fact, it became even more crucial to find out the death of the former emperor. Cui Miao asked Du Qiuniang to tell Pei Xuanjing that there is no need to pursue his life experience anymore, he has given up all of this, as long as Pei Xuanjing returns safely.It was this sentence, coupled with the unique ecstasy powder, that made Pei Xuanjing believe in Du Qiuniang.Because that was the whisper between the two of them when they swore to Xuemeng on the eve of the Caizhou battle, no one in the world knew about it except Cui Miao. But it was also these words that made Pei Xuanjing more determined to clarify the truth. Did the emperor commit patricide?Did Cui Miao's mother poison the late emperor?These two mysteries are entangled with each other, either one or the other, black and white, and all the causes are planted.All karma arises from this, but the truth is always confusing.Everyone is engulfed by this mystery, some people have died for it, and even life is worse than death. When the emperor took the golden pill in front of Pei Xuanjing that day, she couldn't understand the sadness in his eyes.He knew that the golden pills were poisoning him, but he swallowed them one by one.Pei Xuanjing once tried to explain this behavior as: committing suicide due to unbearable condemnation of conscience.But in the depths of her consciousness, there was always a doubtful voice echoing. The emperor's character is so rigid and tough, it's too unlike him to be defeated by his conscience.Even if the second image of "Tui Bei Tu" threatens him to be the king of subjugation, he should fight back, instead of obediently restraining his hands and apologizing with death as he is now. Could he really be wronged? After a sleepless night of intense thinking, Pei Xuanjing decided to put aside all previous assumptions and seek the truth again. Cui Miao asked Du Qiuniang to tell her that she had given up on pursuing her life experience, and she wanted Pei Xuanjing to give up too.He also hoped that Pei Xuanjing could find a way to escape from Daming Palace with the help of the special effect of the ecstasy incense.Although Cui Miao's idea is ingenious, it also has its cleverness.With Pei Xuanjing's ingenuity, it is indeed possible to do it.But Pei Xuanjing had made up her mind that she would never leave Daming Palace unless the truth about the late emperor's death was found out. Because there are too many grievances and hatred buried in this truth, and even the fate and future of Datang. Otherwise, even if she can successfully escape from Daming Palace, her heart will continue to be locked in this magnificent palace, locked in the long night of hatred. Princess Yong'an said, "I don't know anything." Pei Xuanjing watched her calmly, waiting for her to speak. "I just remember that it was an extremely cold winter night. The emperor had moved to Xingqing Palace for several months. Only the emperor's elder brother seldom appeared due to busy state affairs. But for some reason, he suddenly came to Xingqing Palace that night. Apart from a few personal guards, he was accompanied only by the eunuch Ju Wenzhen, the eunuch in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After the emperor's brother came, he ordered everyone to stay away, and we all retreated to the mother's bedroom to wait. Li Zhongyan was not far away from his father's side, but that time he was also driven outside. We waited at the mother's place For a while, I didn't see Brother Huang come out. At this time, I suddenly found that Sister Xiangyang was missing. She was still young at that time, she had just turned six years old, and her father loved her very much, so she had no restraint in Xianning Palace, and she could do whatever she wanted. What to do, no one cares about her. My sister and mother said, no, sister Xiangyang must still stay with the father. They are afraid that she will disturb the father and brother, and they want to call her out, but it is inconvenient for the palace The maid broke in. So they discussed and asked me to bring Xiangyang sister out." Yong'an smiled tearfully at Pei Xuanjing: "I was only twelve years old that year, so my mother felt that it would be more natural for me to go in, and the emperor would not be jealous. I obeyed my mother's order and slipped away quietly. Enter the East Wing where the father is sick. There is a screen in front of the imperial couch. The voice behind the screen, although it is very low, I can immediately hear that it is the emperor who is talking. He seems very excited , speaking in a hurry and fast, and furiously. I couldn't understand what he was talking about, but I was very scared in my heart. Because I knew that Brother Huang must be speaking to Father Huang, but he used such disrespectful words. What makes people even more sad is that the father was paralyzed on the bed at that time, unable to speak, so he could only listen to the emperor's brother scolding himself... I was too scared to go in any more. When I was in a dilemma, I suddenly saw Brother Huang came out from behind the screen. I hurriedly hid behind a pillar. Brother Huang was in a state of excitement, and I was very close to him without noticing me. He paced back and forth with an angry face, and then stopped. Put your ears against the screen to listen. He listened so intently, so I listened with my ears. I heard some strange noises coming from inside the screen. It was hard to distinguish but frightening...Suddenly, Brother Huang rushed towards I went inside the screen. But I felt as if I was frozen, unable to move at all. At this moment, from behind the screen, Ju Wenzhen cried loudly: 'The Supreme Emperor has died!'" Speaking of this, Princess Yong'an took a deep breath, her face was already pale, "I don't know where the courage came from, and I ran in directly. I saw Ju Wenzhen prostrate on the ground trembling, and the emperor was standing beside the father." In front of the imperial couch. He turned around when he heard the sound, saw me, and was stunned for a moment. I will always remember the expression on his face at that time, and the dagger he held in his right hand..." dagger.Pei Xuanjing read its name in her heart: Chungou. "There isn't a trace of blood on the dagger." Yong'an's expression was like madness, with tears on his face, "Hehe, because this dagger does not drip blood, it will always be clean forever! But the bloodstains on Brother Huang's clothes The sleeves of the robe were also stained with blood... I was completely shocked. At this moment, sister Xiangyang ran out from behind the royal couch of the father, yelling: "Daddy! Daddy!" I rushed over, He covered her small mouth with one hand. Brother Huang suddenly turned around and stuffed the dagger into Ju Wenzhen's hand. At the same time, Li Zhongyan rushed in from the outside with his mother and sister..." Princess Yong'an tightly closed her eyes and murmured, "That's all I know." It took a long time before Pei Xuanjing picked up a pen and wrote four words on the paper: "Princess Xiangyang." "It's useless." Yongan shook his head and said, "I have asked her quietly a few times. She always replied that she doesn't remember anything." No, it must work!Since Chungou was bestowed by Changji, it must not be a coincidence that he gave Li Mi the exact same word as Princess Xiangyang.Pei Xuanjing couldn't explain this miraculous connection, but she firmly believed in it. She picked up the pen again and wrote: "Your Highness, please summon Princess Xiangyang to come, I have my own way." Putting down her pen, Pei Xuanjing unwrapped a sachet from her elbow.