Broken Iron Clothes

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After Liu Zhaoye's accident, Liu Yun indulged in the pain of losing his beloved son, and the crown prince was vacated for two full years, until the death of Lu Sheng and the Qinghui army, the destruction of Weixu's palace, and the fall of Yingzhou to the west were reported one after another. Liu Yun was filled with grief and indignation at the bad news of the invasion and occupation, his lung disease recurred, and hemoptysis all day long.At this time, Taiwei Cheng Yuanjun was also old and his body was not as good as before. Seeing that Dali's princes and generals were about to change, Liu Yun put the matter of re-establishing the prince on the agenda.

Among the princes, only Liu Zhaoyu and Liu Zhaobi are outstanding talents, but Liu Zhaoyu is too playful, and Liu Zhaobi is too cowardly, it is really difficult to make a decision. Liu Yun and Cheng Yuanjun discussed this matter behind closed doors for a long time, and finally decided to seek The two had a deep talk before making plans.

Yan Yixin inquired about this, and worried that Liu Zhaoyu would say something unpleasant, so he called him in front of him for a question, but the first sentence Liu Zhaoyu answered was "I don't want to be a prince".

After hearing this answer, Yan Yixin froze in place for an instant.She lives deep in the harem, never getting out of the palace walls all her life, she only hopes to live with some dignity next to Liu Zhaoyu.It's not that she doesn't care about Liu Zhaoyu's likes and sorrows, it's just that she is deeply disturbed by the reality of human relations in the palace. A "don't want to" and go to waste.

Yan Yixin recounted with him the cold eyes the mother and son had received in the palace over the years, and shed tears in front of him when she couldn't help it.

Liu Zhaoyu was a little at a loss, and just quietly listened to Yan Yixin's words.In fact, she knew that Liu Zhaoyu didn't mention it. These years, he and Yan Yixin had a difficult life in the harem.

After a long silence, Liu Zhaoyu asked: "If I can't be the crown prince, what will happen to my mother and concubine?"

Yan Yixin answered him firmly: "Don't live for nothing, live without silence."

Because of this sentence, Liu Zhaoyu did something against his will for the crown prince for the first time in his life.He is very smart, he knows what Liu Yun and Cheng Yuanjun want to hear, and he answers every sentence beautifully during the conversation.After that day, Cheng Yuanjun brought Xu Bin to his side, and since then, everything has become more and more irreversible.

When it was the day of the canonization ceremony, Liu Zhaoyu, dressed in a mian suit, stood outside the Changming Hall under the escort of Xu Bin, bowed down to the most high-ranking person, received the canonization in the congratulations of the officials, and was supported by the guard of honor on a walking chariot Into the East Palace.

On this day, he didn't wait for Yuan Mucheng's return, and he didn't get sincere congratulations from his brother. Even when he stepped on the stepping stones, he felt that what he was stepping on was not hard mud and rocks, but Liu Zhaoye's flesh and blood.

He stared blankly at the high wall in the palace, and he couldn't see the bustling world that was separated outside, let alone Yuan Mucheng, who was far away from the dust. Instead, he was getting more and more trapped in the layers of imprisonment, and he could no longer chase after him. Yuan Mucheng passed through the city gate.

In a flash, he was trapped for another nine years.

When he came back to his senses, Liu Zhaoyu's eyes were already sore.After rubbing his nose, he continued: "I, Liu Zhaoyu, care about brotherhood the most in my life, but I was born in the most ruthless emperor's family. I just watched my brothers one by one with my own eyes..."

Liu Zhaoyu had already let go of his identity as the emperor, and no longer called himself "Zhen" in his words, but his voice choked up when he talked about the past, and he waited for a while before continuing.

"I still remember that when I was ignorant when I was young, I ran outside the Concubine Ru's palace, and happened to see the people inside wrapping the burnt body of my ninth brother in a white cloth," Liu Zhaoyu compared with his hands, "It's so small group."

Liu Zhaoyu shook his head regretfully, and continued: "Later, my second elder brother fell into the river for me, and I became the crown prince in his place, but what I waited for was the news that you entered the Yuzhou camp. After a few years, I will wear Putting on this clothes and becoming the emperor, I sent my eighth younger brother to Ningzhou. Now I finally look forward to his return, but I just watched him fall off the horse in front of me. Even Ling Yong, my cousin, I can't keep. It's a joke that I, the emperor, can protect the people around me completely."

Yuan Mucheng turned his head to look at him, under the crown he saw as if he was still the fifth prince back then, and he was still like a half-grown boy when he felt sorry for himself.So he stretched out his hand and patted Liu Zhaoyu's shoulder to express comfort: "Your high position and weight may not necessarily make things as you wish, Your Majesty does not need to blame himself."

Liu Zhaoyu didn't say any more, and there was an embarrassing silence in the hall again.

After a while, Liu Zhaoyu suddenly lowered his head and said, "Actually, I know."

Yuan Mucheng asked: "Know what?"

"Nine years ago, if I hadn't been that prince, you would have treated me the same as before." Liu Zhaoyu turned his head to look at Yuan Mucheng, his nose was flushed, "Isn't it?"

Yuan Mucheng's heart skipped a beat, and he was speechless for a while.

Nine years ago, he hurried all the way to Yuzhou Camp, just in time for Yuan Mujie to be sent back from Ningzhou.

The moment he lifted the curtain of the military tent, his heart was heavy. When he saw Yuan Mujie's legs wrapped in gauze, his mind went blank. After a pause of less than half a moment, it was like a boulder cracking, and he couldn't regain his senses. .

For several days in a row, he stayed in the army tent, and every time he changed the dressing, he could see Yuan Mujie biting the wooden stick to endure the pain, and finally passed out from the pain.During that time, he was full of panic, carried the quilt to Yuan Mujie's tent to watch day and night, and dared not sleep deeply when he was so sleepy.

After Yuan Mujie regained consciousness, Yuan Haoxun privately brought two people to visit him in the military tent. It was only then that Yuan Mucheng knew that Liu Zhaoye and Jiang Yu were not dead.

Yuan Haoxun spent two years secretly investigating the incident of Liu Zhaoye's fall into the river, from the guards accompanying Liu Zhaoye to the officials who responded along the way, to the horses, vehicles, and grain supply. There is no way to find out, and the rest have not found out the problem.And the strange thing is that although some people in the team were killed by horses, and some fell into the river and disappeared, but these people included the five horse herders who were feeding horses along the road.

At that time, the Ministry of Criminal Justice also found the same result, so it naturally focused its suspicion on Liangcao and the five herdsmen.But then someone suddenly came out to testify, saying that he had seen Gu Qinghe go in and out of the Sima prison, and after Liu Zhaoye's accident, he went to the household department to advance his salary for three months, and then suddenly disappeared for nearly ten days.

All kinds of signs put the suspicion on him, but after Gu Qinghe was exiled to the northwest, the dark guard team disbanded, and a dark guard led dozens of brothers all the way to Yuzhou, hoping to find evidence for Gu Qinghe to escape. In the end, he met Yuan Haoxun and others, and explained Gu Qinghe's unspeakable difficulties.

Gu Qinghe entered and exited the Sima Prison only because he was ordered by Liu Yun to investigate the case of Liu Zhaoye falling into the river, and the time when he disappeared was to send the rescued Cigu to Qinzhou, and most of the salary he received was also kept. Saved Cigu's life.

But the matter of Cigu involves the Empress Dowager, and it is more likely to involve the matter of Concubine Ru and the Ninth Prince, so Gu Qinghe kept silent about the frame-up by Yan Youqian and others.

Afterwards, this group of hidden guards defected to Liu Zhaoye and Jiang Yu, and after they moved to Shuangtan Mountain, they continued to search for the whereabouts of the five herdsmen, and the leading dark guard was Zhong Qiu.

After Yuan Haoxun stated the matter, Yuan Mucheng had a rough guess.The Gu Qinghe incident was led by Yan Youqian and Song Bing, and at that time Song Bingzheng was a supervisor of the Sima Supervisor and had a good relationship with the Yan family. After thinking about it, the person who traveled this time should have been Liu Zhaoyu, so he designed to frame Liu Zhaoye. Jiang's people, nine out of ten are Yan Youqian and Yan Yixin, and Song Bing also participated in this matter.

It's just that he can't be sure whether Liu Zhaoyu knows or not, but what he can be sure of is what he has known about Liu Zhaoyu over the years.

Liu Zhaoyu attaches great importance to brotherhood. Even if he is not valued in the palace, he will remember to take care of other princes. He has no covetous heart for the crown prince, let alone hurt Liu Zhaoye for this.

But just when Yuan Mucheng convinced himself with solid evidence, the news that Liu Zhaoyu was canonized as the prince came from Jicheng, and his trust in Liu Zhaoyu suddenly became vulnerable.

If what happened to Yuan Mujie was to blow up Yuan Mucheng's fuse, then Liu Zhaoyu was the spark that ignited the fuse.

That night, Yuan Mucheng opened two jars of Tieyi wine and drank himself unconscious. When he sobered up, he was punished by Yuan Haoxun to kneel outside his military tent.Xuanhe Jun who came and went couldn't help spreading a few gossips in the camp, saying that the son is still seriously injured and cannot recover, and that the second son of Prince Jingping's residence still wants to drink and enjoy himself.

Later Yuan Muqing interceded for him, and Yuan Haoxun softened his heart and wanted to avoid his punishment, but Yuan Mucheng seemed to be a different person, and only said a word when he was kneeling in the dark sky and touching the ground, that he wanted to join the army.

Because Yuan Mucheng knew that he no longer had a reason to go back to Jiacheng.

But now that he saw Liu Zhaoyu, he still wanted to believe that that person would still be the fifth prince who valued love and righteousness after taking off his crown.It's just that the grudges in his heart for the past nine years have grown too deep, even if they are pulled out, the scars left will never fade completely.

Regarding Liu Zhaoyu's words, Yuan Mucheng didn't know how to respond to him, so he could only smile wryly: "It's all old things, let's not mention them."

"Xiao'an, I don't want to break my promise, but I couldn't help myself..." Liu Zhaoyu put his hands on his shoulders, his voice trembling, and tears filled his eyes as he spoke. He felt aggrieved and helpless, but he had something to say Unable to speak out.

His eyes were covered by tears, he couldn't see Yuan Mucheng's appearance clearly, so he buried his face in his arms and started crying like this: "You have to believe... I couldn't help myself..."

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When Yuan Mucheng came out of the palace, it was already noon, he went to the street stall to grab a few bites of side dishes, and then went directly to the Dudu Mansion.

After entering the door, Yuan Mucheng began to put on that unscrupulous demeanor: "General, you are the governor's mansion looking at the cold windows and walls. When the heat is hot, it must be a good place to enjoy the cool."

"With you talking about being close every day, how can it be so cold?" Lu Tianrui glanced behind him and asked, "He Xiao is not with you today?"

Yuan Mucheng smiled at him, and said: "Recently, there are some situations in the Yuzhou Camp, and I have to entrust him to deal with them."

After hearing this, Lu Tianrui was a little worried: "What's the situation, doesn't it matter?"

Yuan Mucheng walked to the low table, sat cross-legged, and said, "The Sand Snake forces are about to surface, and I am afraid there will be changes in Damo and the Western Territory. The war may break out at any time, but the strength of the Xuanhe Army is limited, so we have to work together as soon as possible." The old man has discussed matters such as the distribution of troops and the preparation of materials, so that we can prevent problems before they happen."

Lu Tianrui sighed a little: "That's right, when the review is settled, Sand Snake will definitely not be able to hide. At that time, the rebels who colluded with Sand Snake will naturally find a way to seek refuge with their allies. A big war is inevitable." gone."

"Let's not talk about that for now," Yuan Mucheng said, "how is the Guozijian?"

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People who were mentioned a couple of times earlier

Liu Yun: The first emperor.

Cheng Yuanjun: Taiwei back then, husband of Jiang Yu and Xu Bing.