Jiuxi

Chapter 431 Chapter 429 [A few cool autumns in life]

The morning sun enveloped the earth.

The autumn wind could not disperse the bloody smell in the square outside the palace.

In the Duancheng Hall, the emperor, who had not slept a wink all night, seemed to be in good spirits, but there was no joy on his face to calm down the chaos, only his eyes were deeper than before.

For the ministers of the Qi Manchu Dynasty, this was destined to be an unforgettable court meeting.

At this moment, there are still a large number of corpses of rebels outside the palace. It can be seen that they once attacked the Duancheng Palace, which represents the core of Daqi's power, and almost broke through the defense line of the Forbidden Army. If the emperor had not personally beaten drums to cheer for the Forbidden Army soldiers, maybe they would have been defeated. It will cause the rebels to pour into the depths of the palace, which will make the fight against the rebellion very troublesome.

"You all should know that there was a rebellion in the city last night."

Li Duan spoke slowly, and all the officials listened respectfully.

He looked around at everyone in the hall, and his tone turned serious: "Wang Yan, Guo Congyi, and Ning Yuanfu are the masterminds of this rebellion. They first held King Chen hostage, and wanted to kill him under the pretext of killing his father and king. After you kill me, kill King Chen, and then you can claim that this rebellion was caused by the Tian family's father and son fighting each other, and they are still loyal ministers who protect the country of Qi. "

This is a rather rough plan, and there are many doubts in it that are difficult to convince the world.

It's almost audible.

Li Duan continued: "As the eldest son of the Tian family, King Chen was calm, courageous and unyielding after being coerced by the rebels. He pretended to cooperate with them at first, and then waited for the rebels to take him outside the palace and Ningmen to put him away. He showed his courage after death and fought with the rebels for a long time, and finally killed dozens of rebels on the spot, which was witnessed by thousands of Forbidden Army soldiers. "

For example, the eldest prince has never had the power to observe the government and has never developed his own power in the court. How could he get tens of thousands of followers to attack the palace?

There was deathly silence in Duancheng Hall.

After the palace became quiet, Li Duan said slowly: "King Chen's actions are worthy of my expectations for him and worthy of the name of the eldest son of Heaven. When the imperial army rescued him back to the palace, he suffered eleven stab wounds on his body. There were countless internal injuries. Although the imperial doctors tried their best to treat him, they were unable to save him. At three o'clock last night, King Chen died of his injuries. "

Perhaps in the eyes of the world, the current second prince and the eldest prince are rivals for the throne. There are countless examples in history of brothers turning against each other. Therefore, the death of the eldest prince will not cause joy to the second prince, but he will be somewhat relieved. .

Among the ministers, only one person shed tears quietly.

The eldest prince died in the rebellion last night? !
Everyone was in a state of shock and astonishment. Although it can be seen from the emperor's narration that the eldest prince's death was not cowardly at all. On the contrary, it was extremely heroic and there was no stigma at all. But after all, he was the eldest son of the emperor and the queen, the legitimate eldest son, but he was actually killed by the rebels. This...

That was the second prince standing at the front of the martial arts class train. He did not make a long speech to comfort the emperor, and he did not even have the desire to speak at all. He just stood there quietly, tears constantly pouring out of his eyes.

If Wang Yan and others can really kill the emperor and the eldest prince, and then successfully control the situation in the capital, they can push the third prince to the throne, and then find ways to eliminate the strangeness of this night and beautify themselves as loyal ministers of Da Qi.

They carefully looked at the Emperor on the Dragon Throne, and did not see the old man burst into tears or furious. The Ninth Five Emperor just sat upright as usual, without any emotional changes on his face.

However, Li Daoyan, Xue Nanting, Lu Chen and the second prince all showed solemn expressions.

After the shock, a strong chill surged from the hearts of the ministers.

In fact, the two people have not really reached the stage of dispute, and their relationship has not yet broken down. Compared with the gloomy third prince, the eldest prince's image in the second prince's mind is much stronger.

But the important ministers standing in the hall all know that many things in this world cannot be speculated with common sense.

Fortunately, their plot failed.

All the ministers looked shocked, and even some people praised the emperor's sage and the prince's courage.

They still didn't know the situation of the eldest prince, but they felt that the emperor's words seemed to have the final say.

But the more calm the emperor became, the more silent they became, because no one knew what kind of terrifying anger was hidden under the calm water.

At least at this moment, the second prince had no distracting thoughts in his heart, only the sadness of his eldest brother's untimely death.

The head of the civil servants, Left Prime Minister Li Daoyan, had a sad look on his face. The old man understood the grief of a white-haired person sending a black-haired person to someone else.

In the silence, he took a step forward and said sincerely: "This man has passed away. Please express your condolences and take care of the body of the dragon."

The ministers quickly echoed: "Your Majesty, I beg you to express your condolences."

Li Duan's eyes swept from left to right, lingering on the second prince's face for a moment, and finally landed on Li Daoyan's face, and asked: "What do you think of the handling of this rebellion?"

Li Daoyan sighed in his heart and said without any hesitation: "This case should be judged by the Holy Spirit. How dare I say anything?"

When the matter involves rebellion and rebellion, it is natural for the Emperor Qiangang to make his own decision, but compared to the more or less perfunctory responses in the past fourteen years, Li Daoyan's answer this time was without any water.

The ministers naturally understood this.

Today, there are many empty seats in the Duancheng Hall. They look at the empty space around them or in the distance, where many colleagues once stood. Now they will never have the chance to stand in the court again. The fate that awaits them is self-evident.

At this point, the emperor's control over this court has reached its peak.

No one dared to question it lightly.

Especially under the premise that the emperor has lost his eldest son, who dares to touch this bad luck?

The only thing they were worried about now was that the emperor went on a killing spree because of his excessive grief, and even implicated many people who had nothing to do with the rebellion.

That was the real crisis for Daqi. On the dragon chair, Li Duan seemed to know the thoughts of the courtiers below him very well, and said slowly: "Liu Shouguang."

The burly General Liu Shouguang came out of his shift and said, "I'm here!"

Like Lu Chen, he was covered in blood and looked murderous.

Li Duan looked at this general who had made it clear to support him a long time ago, with a little more approval in his eyes, and said: "You will be solely responsible for the armies in Beiya for the time being. I leave the safety of the capital in your hands. Don't let this happen again." The second incident last night.”

Liu Shouguang immediately knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. I will guarantee with my life that nothing will go wrong."

Li Duan nodded slightly, and then said to Yongding Hou Zhang Xu: "In addition to the Wuwei Camp, the Xiaoyong Camp of the Zhang Qing family is temporarily under your control. I will make other arrangements after a while. The current situation is to stabilize the situation in Gyeonggi." ”

Zhang Xu responded calmly as usual: "I accept the order."

Li Duan looked at Li Daoyan and Xue Nanting again and said slowly: "The two prime ministers should pay more attention to all matters in the court. There are many courtiers involved in this rebellion, and there will be many vacancies in various ministries. Check To clarify the vacancies, select officials, and maintain the government, you must draft a charter as soon as possible and submit it to the emperor for my review. "

These things are complicated, but for the two time-tested prime ministers, it is obviously not a difficult task that cannot be completed, so the two went out to respond: "I obey the decree."

Li Duan took a breath, moved his eyes to the left, and landed on the young courtier's face. His tone became gentler: "Lu Chen."

"The minister is here."

Without rest for a day and a night, running long distances and fighting continuously, if Lu Chen hadn't been blessed by the Xuan Xuan Sutra, he would definitely not have been able to persist until now.

Looking at his still calm and clear eyes, Li Duan felt a lot, nodded and said: "You are fine."

Lu Chen was slightly startled. Although the ministers around him were envious, they also felt that the emperor's praise was natural.

After all, Lu Chen led the frontier cavalry to attack hundreds of miles overnight, defeating the rebels led by Hu Hai and Guo Congyi one after another, and finally completed a fatal blow to the main force of the rebels outside the palace.

By now, the officials had already understood that this young prince's status in the emperor's heart was unshakable, and he was destined to become a towering tree with lush leaves in the Qi court.

Lu Chen quickly came to his senses, lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, like all the soldiers who fought bravely last night, I was only doing my duty."

"That's a good saying."

Li Duan slowly stood up and said solemnly: "From now on, the capital will be under martial law for ten days. No entry or exit is allowed. Violators will be punished as treason against the same party. Lu Chen."

"Chen is here!"

"I order you to preside over the investigation of the case of the rebellious party. I will give you ten days to find out all the officials and dignitaries involved in the case, and no one shall be left out. Except for the Feiyu Camp and the Seven-Star Army you brought to the capital, Weaver Sutra The personnel of the Department of Justice, the Ministry of Justice, and the Dali Temple will all obey your orders. Remember, I want a detailed and complete list of the rebels and what each of them has done here. "

Lu Chen took a deep breath, bowed his hands and said, "I accept the decree!"

Li Duan looked around the hall. All the ministers bowed their heads, and no one dared to say a word.

He turned around and walked towards the back of the palace. The great eunuch Lu Shizhou shouted loudly: "Retreat from the court!"

A neat and high-pitched cry sounded behind the emperor.

"Long live your majesty!"

……

After about a stick of incense, we were in the Hall of Rende.

The body of the eldest prince Li Zongchao lay on the funeral bed. Ice cubes had been prepared underneath, exuding the slightest bit of coolness.

Li Duan sat on a high chair, watching the eldest prince's lifelike face quietly.

The hall was brightly lit with candles and there was no one else around.

After a long time, Li Duan spoke slowly, his tone was harsh and trembling slightly.

"They say long live long live, long live long live, but who in this world can avoid death? I will die, and you will die too, but I never thought that you would be in front."

"This time I did have a premonition that those people would take action, but I didn't know their specific plan. I could only use myself as bait, otherwise they wouldn't take the bait."

"At the moment of your death, did you feel any resentment in your heart? You blamed me for not teaching you properly, and you blamed me for not protecting you properly."

"Maybe in the history books of future generations, I will be a fairly competent emperor."

"But I know that I am not a qualified father."

"son……"

Li Duan raised his hand and touched the eldest son's face for the last time.

A drop of turbid tears slipped from the emperor's eyes.

(End of this chapter)