miscalculation

Xiao Liang knew from a young age that the favor of his mother and concubine was very important to the prince, especially the situation of his grandfather's family, which deeply affected the status of his mother and concubine in the palace.The other princes all had prominent relatives as their backers, but his grandfather had only appeared in rumors.I remember that when I was a child, I asked my mother and concubine many times about the situation of my grandfather's house, but every time she was depressed and refused to say more.

It wasn't until Xiao Liang grew up that he realized that his grandfather, Yang Yushu, was a famous minister of the former emperor's dynasty, capable of both civil and military skills, and unparalleled in resourcefulness.When the first emperor was critically ill, he was already unconscious on the way back. Xiao Yi went to meet him and took over Yuxi as the king.Unexpectedly, King Ning of the previous dynasty took the opportunity to rebel, colluded with the Erhai royal family, and raised troops to raid the capital Jiangling.Yang Yushu's family defended to the death, and with the enemy's outnumbered troops, he forcibly survived ten days.In the end, even though Xiao Yi's army came back, all the loyalists were wiped out.Xiao Liang's mother, Concubine Yang Hui, is the only bloodline of the Yang family, so even if she is not very favored, she has been treated favorably by Xiao Yi many times over the years.

Yangtian Mansion was the Yang family's house in the past, now Xiao Yi has rebuilt it and bestowed it on Xiao Liang, the intention is naturally very clear.

Seeing that Eunuch Xu was silent for a while, Xiao Liang felt more and more wrong in his heart. If his grandfather was really as loyal and brave as the rumors, why did his mother and concubine never want to mention it.Now that Eunuch Xu is hesitating like this again, there must be some weirdness in it.

Eunuch Xu knelt there, not knowing what to do. He knew that he must die, so he was very disturbed.Even if Xiao Liang doesn't commit the crime, Xiao Yi knows that he can't get around him if he tells the truth.

Xiao Liang is usually very kind, but now he is quite strict. He knows that he is used to being soft-tempered, so the servants are not afraid of his punishment.It's just that after my father killed the third brother's palace last time, now no one dares to underestimate him.But after all, Eunuch Xu served Concubine Hui since he was a child. He grew up watching him and knew his temperament very well. He didn't worry at all that he would have the heart to punish him.

We must know the truth today. Thinking of this, Xiao Liang turned his heart and said coldly: "Eunuch Xu, no matter what, you are a servant. If you refuse to accept this king's life, this king will not be lenient. At your age, you shouldn't be able to bear the pain of being tortured with a stick, let's be honest."

Eunuch Xu smiled slightly after hearing this, and sighed: "Seventh prince, this old slave watched you grow up. After Concubine Hui leaves, you will be the master of this old slave. If you are destined, how can this old slave refuse to follow you? You really don't need to know about this matter, otherwise you will inevitably feel sad."

"Eunuch Xu, you have already said that, I must listen to you clearly." Xiao Liang became more and more curious.

"That's the end of the matter, that's all. This is a letter entrusted to this old slave by Concubine Hui. Please read it, Your Highness." Eunuch Xu took out a letter from his bosom and handed it to Xiao Liang.

"Fengmian my son:

In recent days, the concubine mother has felt uneasy, so she wrote this letter and entrusted it to Eunuch Xu, asking him to present it to you when you become the king and get married.This matter has been in the heart of the mother and concubine for many years, and I hope you don't let your third brother know after watching it, otherwise he will do something wrong.Your grandfather Yang Yushu was your father's confidant, when your father was fighting for the throne with King Ning, he set up a poisonous trap, causing King Ning to drink the poison of madness by mistake and kill Princess Anyang by mistake.The first emperor was furious, and besides reprimanding King Ning angrily, he appointed your father the emperor as the crown prince.Then your royal father saw that King Ning was very powerful and still trusted, so he was ready to make a move, so he conspired with your grandfather.The two pretended to be at odds, and asked Lord Yang to present the late emperor's travel map and the defense map of Jiangling City, so that King Ning would trust him.Later, King Ning colluded with the Kingdom of Dian and divided his troops into two groups, blocking the first emperor on the one hand and raiding Jiangling on the other.

At that time, the first emperor had just destroyed Xiliang, and was packing up the remnants of the army and returning to the capital, and was severely injured.In this battle, your two imperial uncles died in escort.Your father was in Jiangling, the capital city at that time, when he heard the news, he immediately rushed to the front of the army, and took over the military power before the late emperor's sick bed.When your father left, Dian Kingdom led an army to attack it. Your grandfather had already ambushed to help him, but King Ning had already seen through your father's plan and used all his strength.Fighting from both sides, seeing that Jiangling fell, your father's soldiers and horses just entered, killed King Ning, and wiped out the army of the Dian Kingdom in one fell swoop.After this battle, all members of the Yang family died in the battle, and your grandfather died of serious injuries.Then Fang Bocai, the old servant of the Yang family, managed to write to me before he died. It turned out that the Yang family could have a chance of survival. I don’t want your father’s army to take advantage of the chaos and slaughter the Yang family.

The mother and concubine were pregnant at that time, seeing your father taking this opportunity to slaughter my Yang family, she was frightened for a moment and slipped a miscarriage.Later, your father claimed that the Yang family died for protecting Jiangling, a loyal and loyal family, which made your mother unable to argue, so she had to do so.Your father didn't know that your mother and concubine knew the truth, so he treated you very generously, which is why you and your third brother were born.The blood of the emperor, the flesh and blood, killing fathers and brothers, is nothing but ordinary.In the eyes of the so-called benevolent and righteous emperor, loyal ministers and good generals, the pillars of the country, are just paving the way.In this life, mother and concubine, I only ask your brothers to be rich and noble princes, don't covet big positions and destroy conscience.

The orphan of the Yang family must write. "

Xiao Liang watched it three times over and over again, and couldn't help being dumbfounded. Could it be that the mother and concubine knew that her life was not long?In this way, there must be something strange about the hasty death of the mother and concubine.When the concubine mother wrote the letter, she must have never expected that the third brother would suddenly disappear, and she would also be crowned king in advance.If there was something wrong with the death of the concubine mother, then there might be something wrong with the disappearance of the third brother.The more Xiao Liang thought about it, the more surprised he became, and his heart ached again. Eunuch Lin, who was watching, was in a hurry, and hurriedly shouted: "Come quickly, Imperial Physician Xuan."

Before he finished speaking, he saw Xiao Liang waving his hands again and again: "No need to announce the imperial physician, I'm fine, you go down first." He really didn't know that his father, who was always kind and loving, would do such a thing for the throne.

Sitting there, Xiao Liang couldn't help slowly recalling the things that happened during this period, the sudden death of his mother and concubine, the disappearance of the third brother, the wrongdoing of the fourth brother, the imprisonment of the second brother, the assassination of the eldest brother, all these things seemed unrelated, but And interlocking.

He recalled that day when he was standing outside the door feeding the blood crow, he met Sixth Brother, and just talked a few words, and not long after, everyone in Third Brother's palace was killed with sticks.Although it was all the emperor's will, are things really so coincidental and simple?

This palace became more and more terrifying, he was a little startled, and wanted to leave here earlier.Before, I thought about visiting Huaiyue Palace and Sange Palace from time to time, so that I could pay tribute to my mother and brother, but recently there have been rumors that Huaiyue Palace will soon have a new concubine living in it, so what is the point of him staying here? Woolen cloth?He suddenly wanted to go out of the palace to take a look, and wanted to go to Yang Tianfu, so he shouted: "This king is going to Yang Tianfu to see how it is built. You don't have to follow, let Lin Father-in-law, come out with me."

Suddenly a guard came in from the outside and said: "Your Highness, according to the palace rules, Eunuch Lin is a eunuch and is not allowed to leave the palace. Why don't you let me accompany you out."

When Xiao Liang saw this person, he knew that he was the bodyguard who killed Kou Peng in the street that day, so he asked, "What's your name?"

"Your subordinate, Yun Zhao, is a bodyguard of the Ouchi, who is ordered to protect His Highness the King of Qin. What happened last time in Yifeng Tower made His Majesty very uneasy. Besides, the new year is approaching and there are many people on the street. Why don't you let me accompany you there?" .”

"It's okay. But you are always followed by a group of people, which makes me very upset. Why don't you and Luxiu go out with me. I just don't know how your martial arts are, but can you protect me?"

"Don't worry, Your Highness, I will definitely protect you."

After hearing this, Xiao Liang called Lu Xiu to come, and the three of them left the palace together.Xiao Liang went to Yang Tian Mansion first, saw that everyone was busy carrying stones, grass and trees, and the dust was flying, so he backed out again.

He said: "It's too dirty here, this king wants to visit Master Lan to have fun, let's go to the Grand Master's Mansion."

Xiao Liang really wanted to see him, but he thought that Yun Zhao was a follower of his father, if he showed anything here, he would have watched him.It's hard to guarantee that he won't tell his father, otherwise, troubles will inevitably arise.After thinking about it, he excused himself to find Ji Lan, intending to dampen Yun Zhao's spirit.

Ji Lan was drinking tea with He Xu in the mansion, and the two drank happily, quite happily, when they heard King Qin coming, they went out to greet each other.

Xiao Liang saw that they seemed quite speculative, so he asked: "Jing Bo, how did you and Master He meet?"

"Master He is the eldest son of Marshal He's family. After the general, our Ji family marched and fought for many years, and the two families often cooperated on the battlefield. However, Marshal He took the second and third sons to the northern border and left him alone. In Beijing. After Weichen’s father died in battle, he would often come to my house to compete with me, and he has known me since childhood.”

Ji Lan's father, Ji Shaokang, a young hero, unfortunately fell into an ambush when he was destroying the army of the Dian Kingdom, and died young. His wife also died on the spot, leaving only Ji Ze and Ji Lan's two sons.Since then, Taishi Ji Langfeng no longer went into battle to kill the enemy, but only raised the two of them in Beijing.Unexpectedly, when Ji Ze grew up, he devoted himself to avenging his father, so he recruited soldiers from the Dian Kingdom, fought consecutive victories, and was called the Ever Victorious General.Ji Langfeng cherished his grandson, and he would never allow Ji Lan to go to the battle again. He must be very lonely too.

Xiao Liang saw that Ji Lan spoke calmly, and he knew in his heart that both his parents had died since he was a child, and he was probably very lonely when he was a child.Thinking about it this way, I couldn't help but feel a sense of sympathy for each other.

"Then which one of you is better at martial arts?" Xiao Liang asked.

"I'm ashamed to say that since I was a child, I have been fond of reading books, and I can't compare with my two younger brothers. But among our generals, Brother Ji has always been the winner, and he is recognized as the winner."

"Oh? My servant Yun Zhao is very skilled in martial arts. Why don't you compare with Master Lan? What do you think? If you win, I will dare to trust you as my teacher." Xiao Liang blinked his eyes as he spoke. , looking at Ji Lan.

Ji Lan felt strange, Xiao Liang seemed to want to teach Yun Zhao a lesson, knowing that he couldn't evade, so he nodded and agreed to the martial arts competition.On that day, Yunzhao killed Kou Peng with a single knife. He saw that this man's martial arts skills should not be underestimated, so he responded with all his strength.

Yun Zhao didn't want Xiao Liang to find Ji Lan to fight with him, so he hesitated.Thinking about this, as the grandson of the grand master, Ji Lan must have been doted on since he was a child, so He Xu's saying that he is outstanding in martial arts is probably just a compliment.All of a sudden, the young man's desire to compete was aroused, and he took up the challenge seriously.

The two of you come and go, although they are bare-handed, they are like wind.Xiao Liang couldn't see the height, so he shouted: "This is not good-looking, let's compare it with a sword."

He Xu said beside him: "Your Highness, swords have no eyes, it's better to be like this."

"No! I can't see the good or the bad of them. It's majestic when they use swords and swords. Don't they all say that Ji's army is good at marksmanship?" Xiao Liang knew that the spear law was the best of Ji's family, and he would not lose to Yun Zhao.

In a blink of an eye, Ji Lan was fighting with Yun Zhao's double-edged sword with the red-tasseled spear in his hand, and the fight was indistinguishable. Suddenly, the sword and gun collided with each other, and the tip of the spear was half broken, and it ran towards Xiao Liang.Ji Lan was so anxious that he forgot to stop. With a turn of the gun, Yun Zhao's blade turned around and hurt his own shoulder.But at this moment, everyone only cared about the gun head flying towards Xiao Liang, and couldn't care about anything else.

At the critical moment, I saw a stone flying towards me, and just knocked down the tip of the gun. Turning my head to look, I saw the old master Ji shouting with anger on his face: "Lan'er, you are so bold, how dare you wield a knife in front of the King of Qin!" Get a gun, and almost accidentally hurt His Highness!"

When Xiao Liang saw it, he yelled in his heart: Oh no, no, this time he will be punished.