Jiang Qing

"I'm no longer your majesty, and you're no old minister in front of me." The purple-clothed man turned around and looked coldly at Cao Bai, who was kneeling on the ground.

He has sword eyebrows and star eyes, handsome appearance, purple clothes and white hair, sharp eyes, faintly has the air of a king.

"How is the person you're looking for?" the man in purple looked down at Cao Bai and asked.

"I spent two dynasties to build the Dark Fragrance Pavilion and searched all over the world, but I have never found anyone half-resembling the appearance in your majesty's painting. I am guilty, and I will die."

Cao Bo prostrated himself on the ground and confessed.

"Did you not find it, or didn't you find it at all?" The man in purple stared at the top of Cao Bai's head, and said condescendingly: "Although I can't get out of this Fudi Pavilion, if you want to play tricks under my nose, you'd better be tender." A little bit."

"Yes, I dare not, I really haven't found it."

The man in purple heaved a long sigh, the light in his eyes dimmed for a moment, he turned around, and his gaze refocused on the painting hanging in front of the incense burner.

At the place where he stood for a long time, there was a sandalwood incense table, and the incense burner on it exhaled the ambergris, rendering it to a painting hanging on it. He is wearing a raccoon cat, raising his eyebrows and teasing him, with a natural and gentle expression. Instead of a pouch around his waist, he is wearing a snow-white fur ball, adding a bit of unrestrained temperament.

On the side of the picture scroll is a jade seal, which bears the title of Emperor Mu Lie.

"It's just two dynasties, you've only searched for two dynasties, and it's normal if you can't find it..." The man in purple laughed at himself and sighed, as if to comfort himself, "I've been looking for so long, so long..."

"Your Majesty!" Cao Bai kowtowed fiercely, and said, "When your Majesty was in the court, the world respected him, and no one dared to destroy our court! Now the world is unstable, and there are many rumors in the universe that the Li Kingdom has declined for 300 years. Rumors, visions from the sky, frequent catastrophes, and turmoil in the army. The source of it is that His Majesty did not leave any heirs in those years, and all these storms were born after adoptive offspring and heirs. Thinking back to the early establishment of the Li Kingdom, the first ancestor established a contract with Mr. Fudige In this way, the country of Li was built, and the prosperity of the world was peaceful. The Fudi Pavilion recognized the original blood of the Zhao family, and now the side branch is in power, which caused such a catastrophe. The world is uneasy... Minister..."

"Heh, are you persuading me to leave the present for you to have an heir?" The purple-clothed man snorted coldly and said, "You know all about these past events, and you must have read a lot of ancient books and classics and know the general history of the Li country. Then you Have you read the judgments in the history books when I, Zhao Heng, came to court?"

Zhao Heng bent down, used his hand as a blade, and gently spun around Cao Bai's neck, saying: "When I was in court, many ministers persuaded me to leave an heir. Guess they all went away later. Where? Even though I'm not the emperor now, and I don't have a single soldier under my command, it's more than enough to move you."

Looking at Cao Bai's back that was slowly soaking, Zhao Heng flicked his head with his fingers, and said, "The Zhao family is not a good bloodline, so it's better not to keep it."

"Your Majesty... that's not what I meant." Cao Bai said excitedly, "When Your Majesty annexed the world and conquered all directions, how did the Li Kingdom come to congratulate you with majesty? The contract between the ancestors of the family and the Fudi Pavilion will naturally be re-established, natural disasters and man-made disasters will gradually subside, and the prosperity of the country will be just around the corner, as long as your majesty shows mercy, the minister cleans up the internal affairs, and welcomes your majesty back to the palace, you will die!"

"Over the years, I have relied on your contacts for outside news. You think you can handle me, don't you?" Zhao Heng gritted his teeth and said, "What I want is to find him! How do you use my name to collude outside? Courtiers, how to plan to seize the country of Li is not a problem to me. When I was in power, I didn't see enough of the country of Li, how can this little territory be placed in my eyes?"

"Since God ordered His Majesty to enjoy a life that ordinary people do not have, why not give Li Guo a chance? I only hope that Your Majesty can rescue the emergency, stabilize the situation, so as to calm the hearts of the people, and bring order out of chaos. I am loyal to the Zhao family and have no selfish intentions. There is a lesson to be learned from heaven and earth!" Cao Bai knelt on the ground, his eyes rolled slightly, and said: "Now the minister's manpower can only cover the land of Li country. As for Liang country and Jiang country, they have not been able to investigate carefully. If we can If you stay in the Northland, the person His Majesty wants to find may have a little more chance of winning."

"Enjoy a life that ordinary people don't have? Oh, the immortal touched my head and gave me longevity. I have indeed lived long enough."

Zhao Heng looked at him with a half-smile and half a smile, then turned around and burned a stick of incense with his own hands, and said lightly: "I still say the same thing, I found someone and brought them here, this is what you should do, as for what else do you want to do?" What to do, I won't ask."

"Your Majesty understands, I ask Your Majesty to give you a hexagram."

Zhao Heng stretched out his hands and rubbed it on the incense burner, gathered the ambergris in both hands, then grabbed the three copper plates in the turtle shell next to the incense burner, closed his eyes and prayed, and threw them on the incense table.

He stared at the copper coins on the table, paused, and sighed: "Do your best and obey the destiny."

Cao Bai's spine froze for a moment, and finally kowtowed again: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for divination."

-

After the opening of the dynasty, Zhao Zhen, at the request of Bai Bingchen, asked the historian who compiled the history to go to the White Mansion. Bai Bingchen also deliberately dismissed Mei Shao. time.

As soon as the historian left, Mei Shao came back. Bai Bingchen glanced at Mei Shao's face while drinking tea, wondering if he had bumped into the historian who was going out, when Mei Shao suddenly called him, but refused to say anything. Nothing else.

Only then did Bai Bingchen belatedly realize that after Mei Shao came in, he just sat in the empty seat separated by two or three chairs, and only now did he say the first sentence.

Such an abnormal behavior was not at all like Mei Shao's usual behavior, Bai Bingchen's heart "suddenly", was thinking about how to speak, when Mei Shao's slightly tired and regretful voice sounded.

"Zhang Jiudai is dead."

Bai Bingchen stood up abruptly, his mind went blank for a moment, but then he blurted out, "How did you die?"

"It's people from Anxiang Pavilion." Mei Shao hammered the chair, "Actually, on the way to exile, they had conflicts with our people a few times, but each time they just poked their heads and retracted, thinking They wanted to rescue Zhang Jiudai, so it is reasonable to be cautious. Our people followed all the way to the border of Linzhou, where they were exiled, and they finally made a move. Our people wanted to keep alive, so we left room for attack. , I didn't expect them to take advantage of this gap to throw hidden weapons and kill Zhang Jiudai."

"What about that person? Didn't anyone survive?" Bai Bingchen asked anxiously.

"Everyone who could escape escaped, and those who didn't escape all committed suicide on the spot. They died faster than Zhang Jiudai." Mei Shao stood up, supported Bai Bingchen's shoulders and said, "The only news is that Zhang Jiudai died before he died. Said something—”

Mei Shao paused for a moment, obviously feeling that even saying this sentence was ridiculous, "He said——Xindi blamed me."

"The new emperor?" Bai Bingchen's pupils opened slightly, and he blurted out, "How is that possible?"

Mei Shao struggled and said: "The late emperor's sons are not only His Majesty and King Jing, but I have also met several of them, but since I came back, I haven't seen them again. Are they all... gone?"

"The first emperor's heirs are not considered prosperous. There are five sons in total. The eldest son died early, and the first empress was very sad. After a lot of recuperation, the second son, King Jing, was born. Your Majesty was the third prince back then. The fourth prince was born weak and raised In the palace, when the first emperor died, he was overly sad and died. The fifth prince had a good relationship with King Jing. When King Jing rebelled, the fifth prince led the left wing and died in the last battle. Therefore, I can say with certainty, Your Majesty doesn't have any brothers anymore."

"Perhaps..." Mei Shao whispered cautiously: "Will the late emperor have an illegitimate child living outside?"

Bai Bingchen frowned slightly. Mei Shao's idea was indeed what ordinary people would think of. He went through it silently in his mind, and made sure that the late emperor had not done any private visits in microservices during his reign. All.

Under the imperial city, if the late emperor was fortunate to have a woman, he couldn't hide it, and Yushitai would also have to speak out to persuade him, but since there was no trace of these, it means there was none.

"The first emperor and the first empress had a deep affection, and they had two sons and one daughter with the first empress. After the death of the first empress, the first emperor was depressed and relied more and more on the way of longevity. Later, he relied on your aunt Mei Guifei, but Mei Guifei did not give him Leaving heirs. Except for them, the first emperor never relied heavily on any concubine's mother's family. Without enough power, the people in the harem naturally couldn't make any troubles, so there would be no private transfers, borrowing others son's dirty work."

Hearing this, Mei Shao took a deep breath, and said in a low voice: "Today, when my men came to tell the time, I almost thought I heard it wrong, and I asked him several times to confirm whether Zhang Jiudai said this before he died. Unbelievable."

"The new emperor? The throne... Zhao family..." Bai Bingchen flashed an incredible thought, but he quickly covered it up. This possibility was so shocking that almost instantly, Bai Bingchen rejected his own idea.

He seemed to lose his strength, and sat down on the chair again, holding his mind, and forced himself to sort out this mess.

"The Anxiang Pavilion did not follow our expectations, but killed Zhang Jiudai instead. This shows that I miscalculated, and Zhang Jiudai is not the ultimate mastermind behind the scenes." Bai Bingchen almost suppressed his deep sense of powerlessness after learning the news and analyzed With the situation.

He knows better than anyone how bad the situation is now.

Zhang Jiudai is the person behind it is his judgment. In order to pull Zhang Jiudai down, he has planned every possible way along the way, retreating as an advance, sacrificing the careers of many people, and sacrificing the lives of many people. He thought everything should be settled , but he went further and further down the wrong path.

He used to be able to endure these losses because he felt that their deaths and their sacrifices were valuable, but now this feeling is like a slap in the face, forcing him to go straight. See your own fault.It was my own fault that made all the sacrifices meaningless and worthless.

Zhang Jiudai's death is equivalent to overthrowing every step he took before, mocking him that all his plans over the years have been in vain.

"According to Zhang Jiudai's dying words, the real purpose of the person behind it is to assist the new emperor. We have never known who this new emperor is, but since we want to seize power, soldiers and money are indispensable. The flow of money It's silent, but soldiers are different, as long as we focus on this, we can always find out some signs." Bai Bingchen's vision blurred, and he suddenly covered his mouth and coughed violently.

Mei Shao's expression changed immediately, his soul was frightened, and he grabbed his hand covering his mouth.

"It's okay. It's really okay." Bai Bingchen showed him his palms, but Mei Shao was still not relieved, so she pinched his chin and examined it carefully.

He was really frightened by the scene where Bai Bingchen was coughing up blood, and seeing his complexion and tired look, his heart was in his throat almost instantly.

"I just... feel that my many years of planning are nothing more than nothing, and my mind is fluctuating a little." Bai Bingchen smiled wryly.

It's not that Mei Shao has never experienced a time when his beliefs were broken. The feeling of despair is definitely not something that Bai Bingchen's easy words of "spiritual fluctuations" can cover up. He hugged Bai Bingchen tightly in silence, without saying a word.

Bai Bingchen patted him and held his hand tightly. He wanted to continue talking about the reasoning he had just said, but at the same time, he realized that he was not in the right mind, and it was really hard to think clearly.

"Actually, I'm still in a mess. Can you leave me alone?" Bai Bingchen issued the order to evict the guest, but Mei Shao didn't let go.

Mei Shao heard from people in the White Mansion that whenever Bai Bingchen had something he couldn't figure out, or a hurdle he couldn't overcome, he would shut himself in the room without seeing anyone until he forced himself to think clearly.

At that time, no one could get close to half a point.

Usually, Bai Bingchen survives this kind of time alone, but now Mei Shao doesn't want him to shut himself up like that anymore.

"I'll accompany you." Mei Shao muffled.

Bai Bingchen was stunned for a moment, realized what Mei Shao was afraid of, and said with a smile: "I just want to be alone, and think about any mistakes and omissions that I didn't realize. You are here, and I will be distracted from thinking about you." of."

Mei Shao looked down at him, with a hesitant expression in his eyes, he let go of his hand after a while, and said: "Only half a day, I will call you to eat at night, and you are not allowed to lock the door."

"Okay." Bai Bingchen patted his head reassuringly, "Don't worry, I still have a lot to do, and I won't let myself get stuck here."