For the emperor

Sitting in the lobby of the teahouse, Li Renqiang handed over the tea he had brought to Xiao Er, squinting his eyes in enjoyment as he watched the fragrance of the imperial bestowed Dahongpao overflowing from the teacup.

For more than ten years, he has dealt with a group of strong men all the time, and recently he has to fight wits and bravery with a coach who is not at all reassuring. He almost forgot how happy the leisurely life of drinking tea, walking birds, eating and waiting for death is.

"Uncle Li!" Duan Yu rushed in, sweating profusely, and was about to ask what the situation was. Qingya, what are you making such a fuss about!"

Duan Yu learned that his daughter-in-law-to-be was taken away wearing the shackles of a felony prisoner, how could he be in the mood to drink tea with him and listen to music from here? He said: "Xiaosheng has never heard of such a thing in his life. The general Chang Sheng who beat the enemy to the wind came back. The first thing was to award meritorious service, and the second thing was to be sent to prison for trial!"

Duan Yu's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately understood. He suppressed the restlessness in his heart, and listened attentively.He came to his senses a little bit, Susu was taken away in the palace, why did it only take half a day, and it has already spread among the neighbors?

Cang Tiansu left in a hurry and did not release any news. Even he himself only found out about it because the loyal old housekeeper heard the news outside and rushed to inform him.

The voice of the man was not low. The teahouse where there were people chatting in twos and threes, admiring poems and paintings was inexplicably silent for a while, and then someone answered: "No, it's really unheard of, and unseen! No matter how stupid and lifeless the people are at the end of the previous dynasty, I have never used a knife on my own heroes." The words were already disrespectful, but since Cang Kingdom has always had freedom of speech and open people's customs, it is not enough to be judged as a crime.

"But what's the reason?" Someone asked in a low voice.

Li Renqiang took a sip of water, blew on the tea foam floating on the water, and said with a smile: "Because he was good at beheading, and privately dispatched troops to turn around to grab food—oh, yes, and seeing soldiers vying for cannibalism, Not stopped."

All kinds of deeds of the Northwest Army have already been spread by Zhao Liu with all his strength. Even the common people in the market are rarely unaware of them.As soon as Li Renqiang said this, the teahouse immediately exploded.

Putting down the tea money, Li Renqiang pulled Duan Yu out and went out: "Boy, you are still too young. Once you lose the little baby of the Cang family, you will be full of flaws all over your body. You will gain wisdom through experience. If you don't know what to do next time, Don't be reckless and ask someone to discuss it, just stay in the mansion honestly, your little lover has a way to solve it."

"Susu, is he really so godlike?" Since Duan De's death, the first person Duan Yu trusted in the world was Cang Tiansu, and the second most trusted person was Li Renqiang. Seeing him say this, he was full of worries. Halfway down, half-believing and half-doubting, I couldn't help but ask again.

Li Renqiang nodded with an inscrutable expression on his face.In fact, General Li still didn't say a word - even if Cang Tiansu had no choice, you would only add to the chaos if you got close to him, instead of putting yourself in for nothing, you might as well stay in the mansion and watch a show.

Duan De's more than ten years of Tibetan clumsy education has been too successful. The only child of the Duan family really has one intestine to the end. Li Renqiang secretly rejoices that he has found himself. Without Xu Compensation, [-]% of them don't know how they died.

General Xu, who is too selfish, has always been a knife in Cang Tiansu's hands. When he has the ability to hold the knife handle, he is naturally invincible and invincible; The speed is definitely not slow.

Now that the situation is unclear, once Duan Yu bumps into him, nothing will happen, but if something goes wrong, Xu Companion will definitely give this best substitute for the dead ghost as soon as possible.

The imperial court wanted to impose crimes for playing games, the only son of the Duan family could calm the anger of the higher ups better than a newly promoted general.

Cang Tiansu and Duan's family are already grasshoppers on the same rope. Now that he is in prison, Duan Yu's situation is actually even more dangerous.General Li was worried and unable to speak clearly, so he had to coax people back to the house and wander around looking for clues by himself.

This time things are full of weirdness. The three reasons listed by the Prudential Secretary are clearly the fault of the Liu family. Now that the army has returned and the Liu family has just gained power, the matter of Liu Yansi will definitely find a way to cover it up. It is impossible. Stupid enough to poke a scar.

What they have done today is to self-destruct the Great Wall. If it is not handled properly, it will arouse public anger, and the prince of Cang Kingdom who has been imprisoned will be cheap for nothing.

Li Renqiang preliminarily speculated that this incident was a scapegoat for the Liu family who was forced to take the blame.The fact that the news in the Forbidden Palace could spread to everyone in an instant was not something that Cang Tiansu could do in a hurry. This also indirectly proved that there was a very deep and hidden force on the other side secretly helping.

Really can't think of any family in the capital with such ability, Li Renqiang can only start from other places and analyze who can benefit from it.

At present, Emperor Jing has eight sons, and Liu Jiaming is apparently the second and third prince's mutual support. However, according to the situation of the second prince's supervision of the country a few days ago, the cooperative relationship between the two is already in jeopardy.

Once the Liu family completely lost popular support, under the guidance of Emperor Jing in the past few years, the second prince who gradually came into contact with Shilin would not be affected much, but the status of the third prince, who was only ten years old, was in jeopardy.

But if it was done by the mother clan of the young princes below, they would not have sent such a big pie to the eldest prince.Compared with the two or three princes who made little achievements next to Emperor Chang Ban, Cang Tiansu, the mighty border guard of the enemy country, was more like a mountain pressing on their heads.

Cold-blooded and brutal, killing people like hemp, and having done the shitty thing of massacring the city, after careful calculation, Cang Tiansu has far more loopholes than the Liu family.Even if ruthlessness is the truth of the march, the people still prefer a Confucian general who has an aura of benevolence and righteousness to a general who can kill prisoners of war.

For the mother clans of several princes, instead of making great efforts to deal with the Liu family, it would be more cost-effective to join forces and aim at Cangtian, who has not yet gained a foothold in the imperial capital.

After all the calculations, the biggest beneficiary of the Liu family's troubles can only be the eldest prince of the Cang Kingdom who is eating in prison. Li Renqiang couldn't figure it out. In the end, he could only attribute the matter to the sky. , Picked up a loophole for no reason.

Under the background of the generals of the Northwest Army and all the generals putting pressure on the imperial court, Cang Tiansu lived a very leisurely life.He occupied a separate cell, which was well ventilated, served with wine and meat for each meal, and took hot tub baths twice a day.

Even if there is no future eldest princess son-in-law yelling outside the cell five times a day to reassure him, and he must rescue him as soon as possible, Cang Tiansu can still be at ease and enjoy himself comfortably.

In fact, there is no need for more than a dozen generals of the Northwest Army to take turns beating the prison guards in charge of duty every day. Just watching Li Renqiang's subordinates carry piles of eighth-rank and ninth-rank civil servants back and forth six or seven times a day, the little guys in the prison would not dare. Ground broke on his head.

The reason given by General Li was very simple. The emperor did not speak. The official position of General Zhenbei was still held by the eldest prince. He was only an adjutant and had no authority to handle high-level military affairs of the Northwest Army.

What people say is convincing, and it involves the army that is still fighting outside. Even if Prudential Division is unwilling, in order not to push the responsibility for losing the battle to himself in the future, he can only hold his nose and bear it.

Over the past few days, I have watched a dozen or so people shuttle back and forth, using the heavily guarded Prudential Prison as their own gate, and reporting the affairs outside in detail to the town above, which has been ordered to strictly guard and not allow communication with others. General Bei, the head of the Prudential Department, who had a premonition that the flower feathers on his head would be lost, looked up at the sky at a pure 45-degree angle many times, and burst into tears.

The Prudential Division ranks first among the three divisions. Even if there are six ministries and the cabinet at the top, they don't have much real power in their hands. After all, they still have the title of a high-ranking official—this is not a petty official, the director hates it, It took him a lifetime of hard work to get into such a position, and his buttocks were not hot yet, and he was about to be kicked out.

After being imprisoned for five days, the eldest prince of Cang Kingdom, who had been calm and composed, kept his smile on his face after reading today's information, but he slammed the thick book on the face of the civil servant directly opposite him, taking it easy One word at a time: "Who gave you the courage?"

"...Back to the commander, this is the meaning of the major general." The first civil servant, who was coaxed by Li Renqiang today, took a peek at the words on it, ignored the blood streaming down his forehead, and hurriedly lowered his head. , secretly cursing in the bottom of my heart that it is not nice to meet people, General Li is really not a good person.

"Did Li Renqiang not stop him?" Cang Tiansu looked a little anxious, turned his face for the first time in five days, and his face was very ugly.

When he asked the question, the first civil servant was already tossing in his heart, scolded Li Renqiang bloody, and said bravely, "This...is suggested by General Li."

Cang Tiansu stood up with a "thump", yelled "ridiculous" and "nonsense" out of order with a gloomy face, then sat down on his buttocks, waved everyone out with a sullen face.

The Director of the Prudential Department looked at the dozen or so civil servants who came out of the room sweating profusely like dumplings, and swallowed, his calves went limp.

He also joked with a few colleagues yesterday that how long it would take for the generals outside to let their coach out. He didn't expect that the Liu family would drag on for five days, seeing that the direction of the court had gradually changed. The major general couldn't wait any longer, so he ran directly to face the saint.

According to the news from above, Emperor Jing, who is seriously ill, is still in a coma. At this juncture, he can still rush to the muzzle of the gun. These generals are really not afraid of death.

After everyone left, the great prince of the Cang Kingdom stared blankly at the foot of the table for a while, and calmly rolled up his sleeves and rubbed his ink, completely without the furious look he had just seen before.

——Li Renqiang was able to quickly sort out the general situation of the matter, pinning the culprit on Emperor Jing who most people would never have thought of.

Cang Tian was not worried that Duan Yu would go and never come back, Li Renqiang must have communicated with him in advance, once they met Emperor Jing, and the two of them tacitly acted out their tricks for the world to see, the matter would be over.

Before today, the courtiers who were watching outside must have guessed that the Liu family dared to imprison the Northwest Army's commander-in-chief, and let the whole world know with great fanfare that the emperor must have given the order to refuse to let go despite his infamy.

There is such a possibility, so the generals of the Northwest Army have repeatedly encountered obstacles outside in the past few days, and it is rare to see a good face.Because the courtiers were afraid of offending the emperor, even if they knew they couldn't chill the hearts of the heroes, they really didn't dare to take the matter on themselves.

As a result, when the major general saw the emperor today, Longyan was furious, and the Prudential Division immediately released him. The Liu family couldn't get in a word. Now they have been called to the imperial court to give a lecture. Can the ministers who can't let go have no guesses?

Looking at the situation, it is clear that the Liu family did a good thing without telling the emperor - the people below were dumbfounded, and even dared to make decisions on military and state affairs without reporting it. Could it be that the Liu family has already revealed treason when the emperor is seriously ill? Rebellion mean?

Prince Cheng's lesson from the past is vivid in his eyes, who can not have an abacus in his heart?There are not many people who have not done much in ordinary life. The emperor can't beat a boatload of people to death with one blow. This group of people is confident and not very afraid, but it is better to be less involved in the daring and implicating the nine clans.

After repeated blows this year, the number of ministers the Liu family can control has gone from ten to three or four. When Emperor Cang Jing sends a big scapegoat on a whim, Ba Cheng, Liu's relatives who have worked hard for a hundred years, will completely collapse.

Emperor Cang Jing cheated Duan Yu ruthlessly on Duan Yu's matter, violated the most basic principle of cooperation, and consciously made a mistake.

In the past few days, Cang Tiansu has thought clearly, and the depression in his heart has somewhat dissipated.

Duan Yu's temperament is too easy for people to manipulate, so it's good to marry a princess.The princess has an independent princess mansion, and lives in a separate mansion with her son-in-law. She doesn't see her a few times a month, so she won't have enough time to brainwash Duan Yu.As long as the major general's heart is towards him, the great help of the Duan family will not be able to escape.

The angry emperor soon fell into a coma again, and before he lost consciousness, he ordered that the right to promote the official position be delegated to the uncle who supervised the country, after discussing with the ministers, the decision was made.

On the day Cang Tiansu was released from prison, the official positions of the generals of the Northwest Army and several generals who made great contributions to the suppression of the rebellion had already been approved.After reading it hastily, he suddenly realized that Emperor Cang Jing's favor had not been repaid.

So your life is so valuable?The First Prince of Cang Kingdom looked at the words "Junwang" on the first line, imagining the mourning of the Liu family at this time, his expression was calm, and his heart was trembling with joy.

The Prince's Clothes were given when Emperor Jing was in power, and the Prince's Mansion was rewarded when Emperor Jing was sober. Now the Emperor is "seriously ill in bed and fainted." As soon as the Liu family who supervised the country took office, they only gave the eldest prince a county king Even if they yelled that this was actually the emperor's intention, and the lessons of cutting off food and grass and seizing it privately were vivid in their minds, people under heaven would not believe it.

——But the crux of the matter is that this kind of immoral thing is actually the meaning of the real emperor.

Holding Duan Yu who was rushing towards Xiong, Cang Tiansu who was in a good mood raised his head and gnawed on him.

Liu Jiaming knew that Emperor Jing's handling of this matter was dishonest, so he could only choose to swallow his anger.They gave themselves a county prince according to the emperor's order. In order not to cause the generals to retaliate, they could only raise other people's official positions.

For example, Li Renqiang, who was originally from the second rank, was promoted to the second rank at most according to the original plan of several people. This time, he was promoted directly to the first rank.

In the Northwest Army, more than one person has received this kind of benefit.

Regardless of how prosperous the Liu family has been in recent years, Cang Jinglan actually set a lot of restrictions secretly. No matter how long their hands were, they did not dare to win over the generals of all parties. At most, they only had a detached position among civil officials.

Originally, the imperial court emphasized civility over military affairs, and civil servants occupied most of the positions. Now that the atmosphere has changed, the status of generals has been raised, and there is a faint meaning of surpassing their predecessors.

The old men at the helm among the civil servants saw that Kong Zhongni's students were overwhelmed by a group of vulgar peasants overnight, and none of them could bear it.

——Hey, there was a lot of trouble a while ago, and in the end it was all the Liu family who slapped themselves in the face, and now they still refuse to stop, right?The Liu family is really a longevity star who hangs himself and thinks he has a long life!

On the side of the generals, the two old enemies, Li Renqiang and Xu Compensation, joined forces this time, and after various beatings, most of the twenty or so generals attributed the credit to Cang Tiansu.

——Prison again, and demotion, without the big grievances suffered by the eldest prince, how could they get such a big advantage?Everyone talked about it, but they ignored the olive branch sent by the Liu family.

Even if the literati look down on reckless people from the bottom of their hearts, there will always be someone who is willing to stand up and speak out. The Liu family can only cover the sky with their hands, and there is no way for everyone to turn black and white.

Cang Tiansu himself doesn't care about it, but in the eyes of others, he wears the prince's clothes, lives in the prince's mansion, receives the prince's monthly salary, but is only granted the title of the county king. How embarrassing is the word "card"?

Today, the Liu family took advantage of the emperor's illness and dared to speak nonsense with their eyes open, clearly embarrassing a prince, so why can't they plot black hands against themselves tomorrow?

It is a human instinct to associate, and everyone has compassion for the weak in their bones. Cang Tiansu now appears as a pure and simple victim.

Those with high official positions may not care. Officials who are still struggling at the fifth and sixth ranks, and the seventh and eighth ranks, when they think of their future career ups and downs, they will have to be related to a bunch of fake and powerful relatives. Everything depends on people's faces. All disgusted.

If he failed to please the generals and indirectly offended the civil servants, the Liu family may have a hard time in the future.

Putting down the documents in his hands, the great prince of Cang Kingdom, who was in a good mood, was about to hook up with the major general and play some intense sports that would strengthen his body and mind, when the eunuch delivering the order had already arrived at the door.

——The title of the official was in the name of the Liu family, why is the emperor appearing again now?

Cang Tiansu, who had eaten a lot of deflation on the same person, suddenly turned dark, and threw away the major general who was looking at him with bright eyes, and his silver teeth were ground loudly.

——The co-author fainted for several days, when will your old man wake up or do you still pinch a little?

Cang Tianci lighted the incense, watched the thin white mist curl up in the exquisitely carved jade incense burner, and sighed silently.

Seeing his lack of expression, the young prince next to him leaned over anxiously: "Second prince, don't keep talking, we're leaving tomorrow, we'll all be waiting for whoever we take and who we don't. You decide!"

"...It doesn't matter who you take?" Cang Tianci looked at the bright yellow imperial decree on the table, momentarily stunned.He really didn't understand, his father had already made a decision in his heart, so why bother?

He turned his head and saw that the young man was fidgeting, so he wanted to jump up and grab his neck and shake it, sat up straight and said: "Yao Lan, why don't you understand that the person my father really likes has always been my eldest brother from the beginning to the end. "

"Who said that the last incident of supervising the country was because he had the military power to win a little bit. If you have the tiger talisman in your hand and can command a few generals to seal the border, which round will you get his prestige!" Lin Yaolan didn't want him to lose his fighting spirit early , insisted and refused to let go, "This time the emperor sent the two of you to recover the lost land together, so that the subordinates can see the truth."

Cang Tianci didn't want to go on, he casually pointed out a few scholars in the list of scholars who had made friends in the past few years, and shook his head secretly when he saw Lin Yaolan rushing out to notify one by one.

It is said that useless is a scholar, he scoffed at it before, but now it is just such a sentence that pops up in his mind.The young talents who hold nearly a hundred imperial capitals in their hands are all well-known, literary and elegant, and they are usually pretentious, but none of them can see the key point of the Jianguo incident.

Even though I have the tiger talisman in my hand, I have written orders and stamped them one by one and sent them to several generals. It is still a matter of whether they will send troops or not. Maybe they will use this to insist that the father has met an accident and died in the imperial city.

The elder brother far away in the northwest was able to calmly take out the tiger talisman that the emperor refused to leave. Strictly speaking, he was more likely to kill the king than himself, but no one would jump out to question it.

If a few generals with heavy troops put the crimes on themselves, they can only swallow their anger and can't do anything about it, but behind the eldest brother is the [-] ever-victorious army in the Northwest, and no one dares to take the dirty water casually. Splash on him.

The Northwest Army has been in the limelight for the past few years. If the emperor really dies at this juncture, no matter which prince he originally preferred, the one who can finally sit in that seat can only be the powerful and prestigious eldest son of Cang. .

Besides, at least five of the Cang family's ten generations of succession to the throne were obtained by their sons killing Lao Tzu and usurping the throne, which is nothing new.Not to mention that there is no evidence, even if the evidence is solid, the powerful general will not be so stupid as to offend a future monarch for the sake of a dead emperor.

Under the background of the chaotic and unclear situation at that time, the Northwest Army, which had not made a clear statement, was the sharpest spear in the world. What its coach said, no matter how absurd and nonsense, the dominance of belief and unbelief has long since disappeared. in the hands of the general.

If you listen, you will stop, if you don't listen, you will fight.If the fledgling Zhenbei General is really tough, he doesn't need to care about the direction of public opinion at all. Power is the truth. In this world, fists speak.

Cang Tianci has been consoling himself that his eldest brother has an ever-victorious army in his hands, and he has been running the imperial capital for many years. With the eccentric help of his father, he finally has rich contacts to compete with him, and the gap between the two will not be widened too much.

"Brother is only slightly better."

Holding on to the battle report given by his father, looking at the strings of numbers on it, he comforted himself with these words in his heart more than once.

But when it was time for the real contest, Cang Tianci really understood that the young talents who followed him on weekdays had good hopes for the big family, but when it came to the real juncture, no one would let them lead the direction of the family.

No matter how Yaolan and the others act with affection and reason, the patriarchs will not take the whole clan's wealth and lives to play a big gamble with him.Cang Tianci can see clearly that once the imperial city falls, the patriarchs will not be merciless in the act of abandoning soldiers to protect the commander.

Yaolan, why don't you understand that the family needs young talents, but you are not the only young talents in the family, so don't take yourself too seriously.

The second prince of Cang Kingdom extinguished the burning incense with the residual tea in the bowl.

When I was boasting with my friends, and spent an hour thinking about the pros and cons of every word and half sentence in the poem, the iron army smashed the pearl in the southeast of Qi State, and destroyed the pride of Qi State people for hundreds of years; I gambled with my friends and poured tea to praise When the scroll was full of incense, 25 soldiers drank the strong wine in the cup, and surrounded by enemies [-] times their own, raised their knives and guns to fight trapped beasts.

Before he even had time to hold it tightly, four years had already passed through his fingers. The gap between the two, accumulated bit by bit, could be covered by the word "one chip"?