The First Auxiliary Road from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 1292 Wrong

Just as Sheng Yuan was about to go to bed, Xiaoyao's voice was heard outside the door.

"Miss, there are people coming to the palace again!"

Hearing this, Sheng Yuan sat up suddenly and looked at An Yu, who was half sitting and half kneeling on the edge of the bed.

"Why is there someone coming again?!" An Yu couldn't help but mutter.

Sheng Yuan also felt something was not right, and while busy changing his clothes he told Xiao Yao: "I understand, you guys entertain him, I'll be there soon."

Xiaoyao responded, turned around and told the maid to take the prepared tea and cakes to the eunuchs in the palace.

Sheng Yuan was frantically telling An Yu, who was also in a panic, "It's very unusual for the palace to ask me to come over at this time. Although we hope for the best for the palace, we have to make some preparations."

"You tell me, I'll follow your instructions." After An Yu tidied himself up, he began to help Sheng Yuan put on his official uniform.

"I'll go to the palace by myself. You and Xiaoyao contact the Five Military Command Office and the Military Affairs Camp respectively." Sheng Yuan pursed her lips and looked at An Yu's eyes with a little urgency. "It's better to have a false alarm than to make sure both places are on standby at all times."

"No problem!" An Yu took Sheng Yuan's governor token and held it tightly in his hand, "I will definitely live up to your trust."

……

Walking on the deep palace road, the light breeze with drizzle made the lanterns held by the eunuchs and palace servants sway.

Sheng Yuan looked at the twinkling lanterns in the distance moving towards Qingyuan Palace, and couldn't help asking the eunuch leading the way, "Is the emperor and empress summoning all the ministers to the palace in the middle of the night?"

"Your Excellency, the Emperor and the Empress have selected all the ministers to come to the palace overnight, saying that they have important matters to discuss with you." The eunuch replied with a smile.

His words made Sheng Yuan narrow his eyes slightly, and he felt that this summons was more and more unusual.

"My Lords." As soon as they entered Qingyuan Palace, Queen Sheng Ran walked out from the inner hall.

She looked at the cabinet members standing in the side hall, her eyes swept across Sheng Yuan's puzzled face, and she spoke hoarsely to everyone, "Your Majesty was ill just now, and the imperial physician and the other imperial doctors told you not to overwork, so I will tell you all."

As she spoke, she lifted her skirt and slowly sat down, but her eyes never left the faces of the ministers.

Originally, no one knew the reason for this summons. When they saw the doctors from the Imperial Medical Bureau gathered outside the gate of Qingyuan Palace, they couldn't help but have all kinds of guesses.

When all the ministers were sweating profusely, Sheng Ran pulled out a scroll of imperial edict from his sleeve and said, "This edict was written by your majesty himself. It mentions the appointment of ministers of state and regents... Prime Minister Gu, you will have a look first, and then circulate it to everyone."

Everything was fine, but the queen suddenly mentioned the regents and the regents. Even though everyone had guessed about the emperor's situation, they couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

"Minister Sheng." When An Suiyun was about to hand the decree to Sheng Yuan, Sheng Ran suddenly said, "The emperor has always been worried about the princess, so he just said that he wanted to meet the princess's teacher. After you read the decree, follow me into the inner hall."

"...I obey the order."

Sheng Yuan glanced over quickly and saw the familiar names on the imperial edict, and an inexplicable sense of weirdness emerged again.

……

Sheng Yuan followed Sheng Ran into the inner hall, and his first reaction was to look at where the emperor usually worked.

"No need to look. The emperor... is lying on the dragon bed in the inner hall." Sheng Ran sat where the emperor usually sat and looked at Sheng Yuan with red eyes.

"!!!" Looking at everything in front of her, thinking about her sister's words over and over again, Sheng Yuan's eyes suddenly widened, and her lips couldn't help but tremble, "This, this, this... How could it be! I was summoned to the palace several times before, and I saw that Your Majesty was in a good mood."

"That was just a cover-up of tonic and makeup. In fact, the emperor was already at the end of his strength." Sheng Ran said in a hoarse voice, choking several times, "If it weren't for this, he wouldn't have rashly rung the bell of the Baosheng Pavilion last time."

"Then now..."

Sheng Yuan looked towards the inner room of the inner palace at a loss. "The emperor... passed away before you entered the palace."

"!!!"

Sheng Yuan didn't expect her sister to say such a shocking thing as soon as she opened her mouth. She was immediately shocked and speechless for a moment.

"Sister Yuan!" Sheng Ran saw Sheng Yuan was stunned and couldn't help but remind her.

"Sister, sister..."

"Sister Yuan, the Imperial Palace cannot be in chaos, Kyoto cannot be in chaos, and Great Chu cannot be in chaos! Do you... understand?!"

Sheng Ran looked at Sheng Yuan's frightened eyes and said these words to her calmly, but there was unquestionable determination in her eyes.

Sheng Yuan calmed down immediately. "Before I entered the palace, I had already asked Yu Ge'er to take charge of the Five Armies on my behalf and to contact the Crown Prince of Chengzhong, Lu Sheng. At this moment, the Five Armies Command and the Military Affairs Camp should have taken control of the security of the capital and the imperial city."

"That's good." Sheng Ran nodded, looked back towards the inner room of the inner hall, with tears flashing in the corners of her eyes.

But after a moment, she wiped away her tears and her face became firm again: "I summoned all the ministers in the cabinet just to avoid any complications... I will announce to them the news of the emperor's death later. You must be prepared for defense. Xiongwa and I are counting on you."

Sheng Yuan looked at his sister's sad expression, suppressed his grief, and promised solemnly: "I will be on guard and will not let the scoundrels take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble."

……

The ministers waiting in the side hall saw clearly the hurried departure of Sheng Yuan. Suddenly, everyone started to murmur:

"Everyone...isn't Sheng Wenzhen's expression a little exaggerated? Could it be that His Majesty wants to test us again?"

"Testing us?!" Thinking of the results of the previous tests, the ministers couldn't help but shudder.

"This can't be...right?!"

Although they said no, the ministers still couldn't help but feel uneasy: "Logically speaking, your majesty shouldn't test us again and again."

This was said in an affirmative way, but the tone sounded a little weak.

"How about, no matter what the Queen announces later, we all agree with her and shout for her great goodness?!"

"Okay, let's do this!"

As soon as this idea came out, it was immediately adopted by everyone.

Not long after, the eunuch who held the pen read out the imperial edict, which clearly stated: the crown princess Zhaode would inherit the throne, Sheng Yuan would be appointed as the minister of state to teach the new emperor, and Empress Sheng Yan would temporarily take over the government affairs on behalf of the young emperor...

Imperial decrees were issued one after another, and even though many of them displeased the ministers, everyone tried hard not to say a word of opposition.

There was no way. The entire edict of Emperor Yanping sounded like bait to lure these poor ministers!

Look, skipping the first and second assistants, and letting Sheng Yuan, who has just been appointed as one of the three assistants, be the only minister of state, is this appropriate? !

There was no regent, and the empress was in charge of government affairs. All the regents became the government team "on behalf of the emperor". Is this something a wise emperor could think of? !

The emperor should not be a confused emperor, and the imperial edict should not be a joke. Then the imperial edict that the eunuch is reading at this moment is naturally the bait of the emperor to test them!

Thinking in this way, the cabinet ministers became even more reluctant to speak out their opposition.

Everyone thought that as long as they could pass this test from the emperor, everything would be fine.

But their calm and composed scene silenced Sheng Ran, who was about to announce the news about the emperor with tears in her eyes.

This group of ministers...something seems to be wrong!