The maid's road to success

On the day when Prince Li set out with his troops and food supplies, the case of the Fourth Prince was almost over. This time, the Emperor and the Queen Mother seemed to really not intend to leave the Fourth Prince any chance of survival. Even though the officials below had many complaints, they still stubbornly locked the Fourth Prince up in jail.

Even Prince Li was puzzled by the emperor's dominance. Duke Cheng'en raised private soldiers and was the biggest threat at present, but the emperor did not put him in jail. Although the Fourth Prince also coveted the throne, he was not as threatening as Duke Cheng'en. Why was the emperor so determined to target the Fourth Prince?

The Empress Dowager has been fine until now. People from the royal family go to the palace every day to ask the Emperor to punish the Empress Dowager. However, the Emperor still does not punish the Empress Dowager despite all the pressure. It is all very strange.

However, before he left, the news that the Fourth Prince was stripped of his title, his property was confiscated, and he was demoted to a commoner spread out, and Prince Li felt much more relaxed.

In October, the emperor ordered Marquis Wu'an to lead people to conduct a thorough investigation of the personnel in the palace. Many people whose origins were unknown or whose identities were suspicious were expelled from the palace, including not only eunuchs and palace maids, but also many guards.

Even several concubines in the harem were banished to the cold palace. An Wen Niang found out about the two concubines sent into the palace by Black Hawk. Because they were carefully admitted to the good households in Gongzhou and selected from Gongzhou, they are still safe for now. However, just in case, she wrote a letter to Eunuch Cheng, asking them to pay more attention to them. If they are exposed, please protect them and leave the palace properly.

Although they volunteered to go to the palace to gather information for the An brothers and sisters, they still hoped that they would be safe and sound after everything was settled.

At the end of October, Marquis Wu'an was suddenly poisoned and fell into a coma. The Sixth Prince was also stopped at a farm outside Kyoto. Gong Qisu had not been to the harem for a long time, but he still couldn't help but choose two concubines to accompany him.

Duke Cheng'en and other spies saw that Prince Li and the generals who went to Liangzhou in the north had gone far away, so they took decisive action. They poisoned the restaurant frequented by Marquis Wu'an and sent people to block the Sixth Prince's way to Kyoto. No one noticed that the mountains and forests five miles away from Kyoto were already full of armored soldiers.

"My Lord, when are we going to enter Kyoto?"

Gao Zhixin squatted in the grass and looked in the direction of the west gate of Kyoto, asking them to be patient. His father had been making arrangements during this period, and they still had their people in the city defense army. They could still command a lot of city defense soldiers. The most important forces were concentrated in the west of the city, and the soldiers guarding the west gate were also arranged by his father.

Marquis Wu'an cannot get involved in this matter, but if he is acted upon rashly, given his influence in the army, there will probably be a lot of trouble in the future. So Duke Cheng'en chose to poison Marquis Wu'an, and he will naturally detoxify him after the matter is accomplished.

When the people in the palace brought the final news, the Cheng'en Mansion fired signal fireworks. When the soldiers hiding in the west of the city saw it, they immediately rushed out of the woods and quickly gathered to go to Kyoto. The west gate of the city seemed to be empty, and was open to allow these people to enter and exit.

An Zizhong had been waiting on the upper floor of Wen'en Pavilion in Kyoto since early morning. It was pitch black everywhere at this time, but the footsteps still woke up some people who were still awake. They opened the door and saw these neatly armed soldiers. They immediately retracted their heads, closed the door, and added a thick bolt to the door.

An Zizhong looked at these people and turned to Zhushan.

"Go and take the people to Xiaohe Lane to protect the girl. I'm afraid these people are not regular soldiers."

Zhushan and Zhuchuan also noticed that many of these people gave people a ferocious feeling and did not look like normal people. They even looked around the houses when they walked. Zhuchuan saw that several people had marked the doors of several houses, which was obviously not a good thing.

"What should I do then?"

An Zizhong looked at the people who had completely entered the city and were approaching the palace, so he went straight downstairs.

"Just take good care of the girl."

An Zizhong walked into an alley under the cover of night. The person inside opened the door after exchanging a secret signal. Standing in the middle of the yard were Prince Li and Marquis Wu'an, who was supposed to be sick in bed.

"Zi Zhong, is it time for us to take action?"

When Prince Li requested support for the west that day, it was actually a drama arranged with the ancestor of Huaiyuan Marquis's Mansion. Liangzhou and the west are now under the control of the ancestor and Prince Li, so it is not difficult to pretend that an enemy is invading. Under normal circumstances, all forces will have their own spies to investigate the situation, so it is usually impossible to really deceive people in Kyoto.

But after the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, several people in power fought with each other and had no time to care about the situation outside. They were focused on completely killing the enemy, so this gave the ancestor and Prince Li an opportunity. What's more, with the help of Marquis Wu'an, they successfully deceived those people in Kyoto.

Prince Li designed a plan to transfer the generals under the command of the Fourth Prince, the Sixth Prince and Duke Cheng'en out of Kyoto, while he secretly disguised himself and sneaked back to Kyoto. As long as Duke Cheng'en's troops appeared near Kyoto, his soldiers in several prefectures and counties near Kyoto would also approach Kyoto one after another.

This was all planned by them. This plan was already in place after An Zizhong contacted the ancestors.

Their main purpose is to instigate a fight among the three parties, first divide up a part of the power in the fight to train their own people, and then start to take drastic measures after slowly laying a solid foundation.

Arouse their conflicts and turn them into complete opposition, making them think that they have no choice but to give it a try, forcing these people to rebel.

The Sixth Prince will gain the support of Marquis Wu'an and Prince Li and lead his troops to support Kyoto in time. He will rescue the dying emperor from Duke Cheng'en, capture the traitors Duke Cheng'en and the Fourth Prince, and ascend the throne.

The Mid-Autumn Festival Banquet is An Zizhong's last strong medicine. All the secrets will be exposed, and everyone will no longer have any skin to cover up. Their worst and most deadly nature will be exposed, and there will be no need for disguise, especially when they are protecting each other and fighting each other, in order to prevent themselves from losing completely, they will let go and fight.

"It's time for Prince Li's men to enter the city. It's hard for Marquis Wu'an to let the thorns in the city defense army run wild. Now we can slowly deal with them."

Marquis Wu'an and Prince Li nodded and left one after another. Standing on the rooftop of the most prosperous restaurant in the city, looking at the troops approaching the palace below, An Zizhong suddenly felt so sour. It turned out that this was the feeling in the end. He did not feel very happy in his heart.

Prince Li had already left from the south gate on horseback, and Marquis Wu'an also led his guards into the city defense forces, where at least half of the troops were gathered.

As soon as Duke Cheng'en rushes into the palace and approaches the emperor, they will bring people into the palace to rescue him. Of course, they are not really going to rescue him, because the emperor naturally cannot survive, or at least he cannot continue to sit on the dragon throne and manage state affairs.

An Zizhong looked in the direction of the Fourth Prince's Palace with his eyes narrowed. It was still very quiet there and the Fourth Prince could sit still.

If it weren't for the spies that An Zizhong had planted in the Fourth Prince's Mansion who were keeping a close eye on him, no one would have known that the Fourth Prince was actually the leader of the Kyoto Wolf and Tiger Gang. No wonder such a large gang of thugs was so rampant in Kyoto, and no one could deal with them, so they paid special attention to them.

Especially the last time when Lord Cheng'en lost the account book, the Wolf and Tiger Gang was clearly helping Lord Cheng'en's people to find the account book. An Zizhong thought that the people of the Wolf and Tiger Gang were related to Lord Cheng'en, but the more he paid attention, the more frightened he became.

It is obvious that the Wolf and Tiger Gang is the Fourth Prince's men. The leader of the Wolf and Tiger Gang and one of the Fourth Prince's concubines are half-sisters. Because they have different surnames and grew up in different environments, no one would have thought of this. However, An Zizhong accidentally discovered that the Fourth Prince's concubine had met with the leader of the Wolf and Tiger Gang, and the other party seemed to be helping the concubine solve some problem.

At that time he went to investigate and found out about this relationship. It was also because Lord Cheng'en was cautious. When the account book was lost, he only said that an important thing was lost and did not let the people of the Wolf and Tiger Gang know what was lost. Otherwise, the Fourth Prince would not be so calm, and finally gave the Sixth Prince the opportunity to return to Kyoto.

The Wolf and Tiger Gang is considered to be the largest gang in Kyoto, with at least three to four thousand members spread out in various urban areas. They have people in casinos, restaurants, markets, and brothels.

The Black Hawks took a lot of effort to figure out how many people there were, and there were quite a few martial artists among them. Since the family dinner, the Fourth Prince has been forcibly imprisoned in the prison.

An Zizhong told Prince Li that the supervision of the dungeon must be strengthened and they should be careful of prison breaks by the Wolf and Tiger Gang.

It was not until Prince Li left Kyoto that the people of the Wolf and Tiger Gang replaced the Fourth Prince. Yes, it was a replacement. The Fourth Prince had always kept a person who looked very similar to himself, who could almost replace the Fourth Prince through dressing up.

The Fourth Prince has been rescued by the Wolf and Tiger Gang, and is now in the secret room of the Fourth Prince's Mansion. After all, they are smart people. They know that the darkest place is the most dangerous. Even if the substitute is discovered, who would know that the Fourth Prince is hiding in the Fourth Prince's Mansion and has never left?

However, An Zizhong had someone quietly pass on to the Fourth Prince the news that Duke Cheng'en was going to force the emperor to abdicate tonight, and the Wolf and Tiger Gang had recently gathered all its members. The Fourth Prince shouldn't just watch Duke Cheng'en succeed in forcing the emperor to abdicate.

According to An Zizhong's guess, he should be playing the role of the oriole in the story of the mantis stalking the cicada. Why is he so quiet?

An Zizhong suddenly saw something flashing at the gate of the imperial palace and reacted immediately.

He ignored the question of why the Fourth Prince would actually let people set out from the Fourth Prince's Mansion. There must be other secret passages. He just didn't expect that their exit was near the palace. No wonder he didn't notice it.

If there hadn't been shadows moving on the wall under the moonlight, no one would have noticed that a team in night clothes had sneaked into the palace. It was also because of the mighty Cheng En that he led his men to forcefully rush into the palace and storm the palace gate without waiting for the eunuchs and guards to react. There must be someone inside to support them.

But Lord Cheng'en was still too confident. He really thought that the Fourth Prince had no chance to compete and that he could rest assured as long as he stopped the Sixth Prince outside Kyoto. This gave the Fourth Prince a good opportunity to enter the palace quietly.

After waiting for half an hour, the bell in the palace finally rang. There was a huge bell in the palace, which was used to announce death and to call for help in critical moments. When Marquis Wu'an heard the bell, he immediately assembled his team, lit torches, and led his men to the palace in a mighty procession. Leading the way was the Sixth Prince.

After An Zizhong helped the Sixth Prince to connect with Marquis Wu'an, he analyzed the situation in Kyoto. The Sixth Prince changed his previous hesitation and decided to participate in today's palace coup.

However, Duke Cheng'en was plotting a rebellion, the Fourth Prince was a criminal with ulterior motives, and he, the Sixth Prince, was the real savior, but the one he saved was definitely not a healthy and safe emperor.

Early in the morning, An Zizhong reminded him to be careful recently, and that Duke Cheng'en would definitely take action against him to prevent him from interfering in the abdication. Sure enough, Duke Cheng'en tricked him into the villa and cut off his way back to Kyoto. If the Sixth Prince had not been paying attention, he would have been trapped in the villa.

"My Lord, it's fast, slow down a bit, or you'd better yell a few more times."

Looking at the smug expression of the Sixth Prince, Marquis Wu'an could not help but remind him that it was no wonder that An Zizhong and the others had finally chosen the Sixth Prince to sit on the dragon throne. The Sixth Prince was truly the simplest one among those vying for the throne. If it had not been for the support of the Empress Dowager and the Sixth Prince's wife in the past, he would have lost his chance of becoming emperor and would have been defeated miserably.

"Oh, yes, Duke Cheng'en is plotting treason and forcing the emperor to abdicate. All the soldiers, follow me to rescue him!"

This was a plan agreed upon by An Zizhong and Marquis Wu'an. Even if Duke Cheng'en had planted people among the imperial guards, the palace would not be so easy to break into. If the city defense troops came to rescue the emperor too quickly, they might actually succeed, and that would be a loss.

And it would be best if the commotion was bigger so that everyone in the city would know about it, and also wake up those ministers who wanted to avoid danger, forcing them to participate, to witness the Sixth Prince's heroic feat of leading the city defense forces to protect their lord, and to prepare for supporting him to ascend the throne later.