Survival countdown

Renmingdian, the residence of the middle palace.

The queen is two years younger than Yuanshou, and she was a good girl who was well-known in Kyoto back then. Unfortunately, the years are ruthless, and no matter how pampered she is, she will inevitably show signs of aging.

The hand that was beautifully painted with Kodan supported her forehead. After hearing the prince's question, the queen opened her eyes suddenly: "Where did you hear this?"

Prince: "Mother, you just need to tell me, right?"

The empress winked, cleared everyone in the hall, grabbed the prince's hand and said: "My son is the only crown prince of Dajing, he was in the past, he is now, and he will be in the future. So what is Huo Jingtang? A bastard born out of intercourse with no intermediary!"

The prince was startled, and there was a lot of meaning in these words: "Queen, is Huo Jingtang really the real one?"

The queen closed her eyes: "Before Cui Shi was given the marriage, she had a relationship with your father."

The crown prince couldn't sit still, "The prince in the father's heart is really Huo Jingtang? I, I am just a victim standing in front? The sixth son, the sixth son too?" I used to think that the sixth son wanted to compete for the heirloom, but the emperor found out that he would use him more, which was enough to hurt people's hearts. "Send Lao Liu as an imperial envoy to clean up Jiangnan's officialdom, and asked me to intervene in Jiangnan's major case. I thought I was asked to pick peaches, but it turned out that he wanted us to play a fight between snipe and clam, so that Huo Jingtang would be clean and smooth. Dangdang enthroned!"

"What a broad road, what a kind father's heart."

The prince couldn't help but his eyes were red. He had a lot of thoughts, but he respected Emperor Yuanshou the most. Both the emperor and his father made him worship him endlessly. What did he get in the end?

piece?Stepping stone?

The prince was so emotional that his whole body was trembling, he gritted his teeth and asked, "What are us princes to him? Only Huo Jingtang is worthy to be his son!"

Queen: "Don't be sad, my son, it's not certain who will have the last laugh."

Prince: "But I see what the father means, it seems that he is not going to hide his partiality for Huo Jingtang."

The queen lowered her eyes and thoughtfully said: "Don't panic, as long as your position as the crown prince is not shaken for a day, you can relax. If someone dares to touch you... let's see what happens!" She patted the prince's hand, Quite lovingly asked: "How is Wan'er recently?"

The prince hesitated for a while, then lowered his head and said, "Very good."

The queen, who sees through and does not tell the truth, said meaningfully: "The Zhiyuan Lu is in charge of the military power after all. If something happens, the Zhiyuan Lu will have to come forward to mobilize the Central Forbidden Army."

The prince raised his head: "Mother?"

The queen has already started another topic: "I heard that you and Changping are getting along well? Tomorrow's mother will call her into the palace, so I can find an excuse for your imperial grandmother to meet and ease her 20-year longing for a daughter. Alright , if there is nothing else, go back to your palace." Adjusting the crown prince's clothes, "raise your head and chest, don't slump your head and make people laugh. With your mother here, no one can take away your crown prince."

The prince nodded and left the Hall of Renming.

As soon as the waiter left, the smile on the queen's face disappeared immediately, and it was shockingly cold.

"Why is he so fateful? He didn't die in Prince Jing's mansion or on the battlefield back then. He couldn't even be poisoned by Gu poison... Now he still wants to take away everything that belongs to my son in a grand manner? For a man and wife to ruin His Majesty's painstaking efforts. How do you match up with such a scheming bastard?" Seemingly amused, the queen looked in the direction of Wende Hall and muttered to herself: "I'm afraid you didn't expect your trusted heir to be stupid for a man's wife, does that count? Lifting a rock to shoot yourself in the foot?"

Whispering for a while, the queen came back to her senses, called someone in, and said lazily: "Send a post to Changping to say that I want to see her very much. Tomorrow night, I want to have a meeting at the waterside pavilion behind the Ciming Hall." For a small family banquet, go and ask the Empress Dowager personally if she is willing to lend the water pavilion."

Two maidservants in the hall listened to the order.

***

At this time Wende Hall.

Emperor Yuanshou, who couldn't calm down after halfway through the revision of the memorial, suddenly slapped the table and said sharply, "Show Huo Jingtang and quickly enter the palace!"

The eunuch quickly took orders.

***

Lin'an County Prince's Mansion.

When the eunuch arrived, he found an ordinary carriage parked at the gate. He didn't pay attention to it at first, but in a blink of an eye, he found out that the person who came down was Zhao Boyong, the chief executive of the court, so he hurried over to pay a visit.

Zhao Boyong: "It is His Majesty's will that you come to the county palace?"

"The king of the small county left the northwest without permission, and the East Palace just finished participating. You said that the trouble caused by Zhao Baiyu's attack on the two rivers has not been resolved, and the king of the small county has made trouble again. A group of people will participate in the performance tomorrow. , Your Majesty was furious, and ordered me to summon people into the palace. Sigh, I think this county's mansion is not going well...By the way, why is Zhao Zaizhi here?"

Zhao Boyong: "I'm here...to ask about Liangjiang's case."

The eunuch didn't suspect that the case was too big.

Before Zhao Baiyu returned to Beijing, not only the people were arguing, but the government and the public even expressed their opinions passionately. They were divided into Zhao Baiyu, who should be dealt with lightly, and Zhao Baiyu, who was lawless and eradicated dissidents. When the two factions are severely punished, they will blush and thicken their necks after arguing.

A while ago, there was an incident where civil servants at the gate of the palace rolled up their sleeves to fight because of this incident. The servant Zhong Zhang said that one of his teeth was knocked out on the spot, and the next morning he cried out of breath. Emperor Yuanshou gave him justice.

Emperor Yuanshou was already upset and irritable, and he would reprimand the two of them indiscriminately when he was made such a fuss again. Then there was a great victory in the Northwest, and the envoy of Daxia came to visit the capital to discuss peace talks to ease the atmosphere. Zhao Baiyu beheaded three hundred officials. It's only when things cool down.

Originally, Zhao Baiyu was ordered to interrogate Zhao Baiyu by the Ministry of Criminal Justice, and the progress went smoothly. Who would have expected that the East Palace would go to arrest the person himself, and would be stopped by Xiaojun Wang, the devil king of the world.

The eunuch and Zhao Boyong, who was full of worries, had nothing to say for a while, but at this moment the door opened, and the eunuch was stopped by Uncle Hai when he was about to go in.

Uncle Hai delivered a letter and said with a smile, "It's a letter from the county king to His Majesty."

The eunuch: "Your Majesty quickly ordered the Prince of Lin'an County to enter the palace to face the saint. Let the Prince Xiaojun personally deliver this letter to His Majesty."

Uncle Hai: "Our Little County King said that in order to prevent someone from taking Mr. Zhao away while he is not around, he decided not to leave Mr. Zhao at an inch. If you want to question him, he will be taken away with you. If your majesty is afraid of Mr. Zhao running away, you can Confine the county palace."

The eunuch was dumbfounded, did the king of the small county really intend to implement the anti-decree?

He tried his best to persuade him, but was blocked by Uncle Hai with a few words. He spent more than half an hour in a daze, but he didn't even step through the threshold.

As for Zhao Boyong, he took the opportunity to be invited in.

It's just that the eunuch didn't know that Zhao Boyong was invited into the front hall, and after waiting for half an hour, he was respectfully invited out of the mansion by Uncle Hai.

Uncle Hai still smiled and said kindly: "I'm really sorry, our little county king has said good things, but Mr. Zhao still doesn't want to see you."

The fact is that Zhao Baiyu didn't even know that Zhao Boyong was here.

Zhao Boyong knew it well, nodded, but didn't say anything, turned around and left the house.

When he stepped out of the county palace, Huo Jingtang suddenly appeared beside the gate, with his hands folded in his wide sleeves, he said lazily: "Lord Zhao, go slowly."

Zhao Boyong opened his mouth and was about to say something, but Huo Jingtang quickly stopped him: "There is a Great Xia envoy named Gao Yishan from the west station of Duting, who was originally one of the prime ministers of Great Xia. The main battle was regarded as a thorn in the side by the national teacher Sang Liangyu, and he was forced to represent Daxia as an envoy to the peace talks. He is the prime minister and knows a lot of secrets, including how Xia Guo obtained a large amount of copper, iron and silver from Dajing."

Zhao Boyong was puzzled, but nodded quickly in response to Huo Jingtang's performance.

Huo Jingtang lowered his eyes, his expression was cold, "Then, see you later."

After saying that, close the door.

Zhao Boyong stood in a daze for a while, then turned back to the carriage, suddenly stopped, looked around sharply, saw street vendors, children playing games, and carriages and horses passing by slowly, and also saw someone who was discovered by him. Immediately felt guilty and fled in a hurry.

There are more than one group of people monitoring the county palace.

This thought flashed through Zhao Boyong's mind, and the next thought was why did Huo Jingtang mention Daxia as an envoy?Who does he want to see?

Entering the carriage with doubts, Mrs. Xie immediately grabbed his hand and asked eagerly: "Is there someone?"

Zhao Boyong shook his head.

Xie let go of his hand, sat back in the corner, turned his face away, he didn't want to look at Zhao Boyong and didn't want to talk to him.

***

In the main courtyard of the Prince's Mansion, Zhao Baiyu was scratching Xuehua's chin, who was meowing in comfort. The sun shone on them, creating a fleeting sense of illusion. Huo Jingtang couldn't help but hugged them. Zhao Baiyu buried his face in his shoulder and took a deep breath, like sucking a cat.

Zhao Baiyu was at a loss, and carefully asked: "What's the matter?" Uncle Hai said just now that someone from the palace sent a message, could it be that he was bullied?

Huo Jingtang murmured: "I think it would be great if I got to know Xiao Lang earlier."

Zhao Baiyu smiled, "How early?"

Huo Jingtang: "The sooner the better!" Then he nodded affirmatively: "It is best when you are just born."

Zhao Baiyu laughed: "How old were you when I was born? Can you take good care of me?"

"Yes." Huo Jingtang rubbed Zhao Baiyu's cheek and said shamelessly: "You are mine since you were born. I brought up a child bride with one hand. When you turn fifteen, I will marry you."

Zhao Baiyu was itchy from Huo Jingtang's hair and the stubble that hadn't been shaved since he came back, so he couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder: "You think I'm so young? You pervert!"

Huo Jingtang closed his eyes and calmed down, and his tone was still very regretful: "It's just a pity. If I had met earlier..." It wouldn't be so distressing now.

Zhao Baiyu put his arms around Huo Jingtang and asked, "When will Your Majesty send someone to interrogate me?"

Huo Jingtang: "Procrastinate if you can, at least until Daxia to end the peace talks. Even if the peace talks end, I can keep you, even if the fish dies and the net is broken, I will not hesitate."

Zhao Baiyu's arms around Huo Jingtang suddenly tightened: "You should stop saying a few dead words. You know that swords have no eyes on the battlefield, so you are not afraid of making taboos."

Huo Jingtang: "Officials can kill people without a knife or a sword. Xiao Lang cherishes my life as well as his own."

Zhao Baiyu smiled and said nothing.

***

The eunuch truthfully described what happened to him when he went to the Prince's Mansion in Lin'an County, which made Emperor Yuanshou even more furious.

"Inseparable? Asking the crime together? Okay, okay, deep affection, right? Want to be an infatuated person, right? Threatening me, vainly taking care of my careful cultivation, vainly wasting my hard work, just for a man! For a Zhao Baiyu, he defies me like that! I am the emperor, and I am his father!"

The big eunuch's pupils constricted sharply, he knelt down with a bang, and kowtowed repeatedly, until his forehead was bleeding, but he didn't dare to stop.

Emperor Yuanshou was out of breath, and his cold killing intent lingered in his heart: "What did you hear just now?"

Great eunuch: "The old slave heard the voice of His Majesty's heart being betrayed by the little county king and crying blood in his heart. After all, His Majesty is the one who raised the big and small county kings. The kindness of nurturing is greater than the kindness of life. The small county king should not disobey His Majesty."

Emperor Yuanshou: "You are too smart."

The eunuch felt a little bit in his heart, and slapped himself fiercely: "This old slave is guilty, this old slave is guilty!"

Emperor Yuan Shou watched him slap himself coldly, and stopped until his mouth slapped blood: "Okay, it makes me seem very cruel. After all, you are an old man who has been with me for 30 or [-] years, and you know how to advance and retreat best, don't you? "

The eunuch: "Yes...you shouldn't have said it, this old slave is that parrot with its tongue cut out, and can't say a word!"

Emperor Yuanshou's anger still persisted: "Since he has said everything, he and Zhao Baiyu will go to the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice to deal with the fateful mandarin ducks. Most of the things he doesn't want are people fighting to the death! "

The eunuch took orders and was about to withdraw, but was stopped by Emperor Yuanshou: "Bring the letter he gave you."

Opening the letter and looking at it, Emperor Yuan Shou froze, his anger dissipated instantly, the letter paper fell to the ground, the eunuch raised his eyes and peeked at it, and only wrote one sentence——

"The king's heart is like the sun and the moon, and he vows to live and die together."

It seems that it was a poem given to His Majesty by the girl of the Cui family. In the end, they failed to live and die together, but died a tragic death for His Majesty.

Emperor Yuanshou had a heart of stone all his life, and countless people died in his hands and because of him. He always took it for granted, but he was ashamed of the Cui family girl.

"Your Majesty, do you still want people to arrest Xiao Jun Wang and Xiao Zhao?"

Emperor Yuanshou turned his back, and the light and shadow cast on him, half-light and half-dark, his back was quite lonely.

"Prison them first, and they are not allowed to visit or go out."

"Order."

***

When Changping returned to Beijing, he landed in the Princess Mansion, which was sealed off 20 years ago. It has been cleaned up all the time. Although it is quite simple, it is also very clean.

As soon as the sky darkened, there was an olive branch thrown by the queen, and Changping readily accepted it, and then a dead man who watched the county palace came back to report that Zhao Boyong had been invited into the mansion for a secret talk.

"Who did you mention?"

"Great Xia's envoy, Gao Yishan, is the prime minister of Daxia. He was attacked because of his different political views, and was forced to come to Dajing for peace talks."

Chang Ping sat back on the stool with a bang, with a dazed expression, flashing traces of fright.

Both Zhao Boyong and the Xie family knew about Zhao Baiyu's life experience, so they would definitely pull him out of the quagmire of the Liangjiang case, so Zhao Baiyu won over Zhao Boyong?

Huo Jingtang also knew about it.

They also wanted to win over Gao Yishan to fabricate false testimony, accusing her of collaborating with the enemy and treason!

Gao Yishan was forced out of the political center, and he must have a chance to come back strongly, and it was in Dajing's interest for him to advocate for peace.The person in charge of the peace talks is mainly the Ministry of Rites. The former minister of the Ministry of Rites was Chen Shidao. It was either his disciples or his old ministry. Whether Gao Yishan was given attractive conditions during the peace talks, and then reached a cooperation.

Can fully imagine the process and results.

Changping's eyes were red with hatred, she never thought that Zhao Baiyu would do this in order to kill her!

As Zhao Baiyu said, not only the public opinion is boiling, but half of the ministers and ministers in the court are pleading for Zhao Baiyu, and the biggest variable is Huo Jingtang—no!She will never sit still!

Changping looked at the post sent by the queen with firm eyes.

Fight to the death, winning or losing is unknown.

***

The movement of the county prince's mansion spread to various places at the same time.

Renming Hall.

The queen frowned: "Why did Zhao Boyong appear in the county prince's mansion? Could it be that Zhao Baiyu's feud with Changping aroused his favor instead?"

Shaking her head, she couldn't figure it out, what she cared about was Huo Jingtang's resistance to the decree, and the reaction from Wende Hall, but in the end she only got a ban, unable to get out or get in.

The queen, who had been disappointed countless times, still couldn't help but feel cold: "It's true, I'm not hiding it."

The Palace of the Sixth Prince.

Huo Zhaowen closed his eyes: "The partiality is so obvious, why didn't you notice it before?" After a pause, he opened his eyes suddenly: "You said that Zhao Boyong went to see Huo Jingtang, and you also mentioned that Daxia came to envoy Gao Yishan? "

"Yes. It seems that there is copper, iron and silver flowing to Daxia in Dajing—"

"Collaboration with the enemy and treason?!" Huo Zhaowen was startled, thinking of this reflexively, then shook his head thinking that he had thought too much, and then thought it was worth thinking about. "Why did Zhao Boyong go through this? Why did he specifically mention Gaoyi Mountain? Could it be that he wanted to find out who was collaborating with the enemy and treason?"

Laughing, Huo Zhaowen: "I'm clinging to the juncture and still want to investigate the treason. Why is Huo Jingtang pretending to be affectionate? I still think finding out the treason can save Zhao Baiyu—"

Suddenly realized, Huo Zhaowen was thoughtful: "It's framing Changping."

He made people pay close attention to the movement of the Prince's Mansion and Gaoyi Mountain in the West Station of the Duting, and after thinking about it, he made people pay close attention to the movement of Changping.

East Palace.

The prince drowned his worries with wine, he couldn't believe that Huo Jingtang was so arrogant, Emperor Yuanshou let him go lightly, any prince, even the youngest of the seven and the nine dared to be so presumptuous, they would not be able to escape severe reprimands, And punished his biological mother.

However, Huo Jingtang was let off, and only got to be imprisoned——

"Hahaha... Confinement? It's not painful or itchy, it's clearly protection!"

The maidservants and eunuchs watched from a distance, not daring to approach, only Lu Wan walked over with her skirt lifted, held the prince's hand and asked in a soft voice what happened, she could pour out any unhappiness in her heart, she would Be sad with him.

The tender and gentle appearance aroused the affection of the fragile prince at this time, and he whispered unconsciously: "I thought it was the person who protected me and favored me, but he didn't love me, and used me as a stepping stone...to give it to the person he really loves." Step, hiccup, step on!"

"I..." The prince patted his heart and said sadly: "Chujun Dajing, it turned out to be a whetstone!"

Lu Wan touched the prince's face and said: "The man used His Highness as a whetstone, so he asked Wan'er to protect His Highness, preferring His Highness." She pursed her lips and smiled, her eyes full of tenderness: "Wan'er begs Dad, let Dad do it!" , will surely solve His Highness’s worries.”

The prince's eyes flickered, and he shook Lu Wan's hand back, expressing his true feelings for the first time: "Thank you, Wan'er."

Lu Wan just smiled, more gently.

***

The next day, a small family banquet was held at the corner of the water pavilion in the Hall of Ciming.

The queen and Changping, the sisters-in-law who had been separated for 20 years, met again, pretending to be familiar, and shedding tears to express their missing feelings. However, when the queen sent someone to invite the queen mother to have dinner with her, she was rejected.

The old lady beside the queen mother said coldly: "The queen mother said that the war in the northwest has just ended, and there have been many murders in the two rivers. You must recite more Buddhist scriptures, eat more vegetarian food, copy more Buddhist scriptures, be sincere, and endure hardships. If I can move the gods and pray for the country, I won’t come.”

The smile on Changping's face became forced in an instant, and there was a three-point genuine sadness in his eyes.

The queen was a little embarrassed, but she still held Changping's hand tightly: "It's good for you and my sister-in-law to catch up on our old relationship."

Changping responded with a smile.

After the family banquet was over, Changping went to sit in the empress palace for a while, dismissed the people around him, chatted with each other, and left with a bright smile and a lot more relaxed pace.

***

The Queen's actions did not intend to hide anyone. Emperor Yuanshou knew that she wanted to curry favor with her, and what surprised him was that Changping was close at hand, but the Queen Mother refused to meet.

After thinking about it, everyone knew about the Liangjiang case, and Zhao Baiyu's hanging of his head towards the gate of the princess' mansion had finally stained Changping's reputation. The Queen Mother was stupid enough to guess that what Changping did crossed the bottom line, not to mention that she was not stupid.

She will not see Changping at this juncture, lest she be made a fuss about.

The mother of a country should be like the queen mother, how can she be as stupid as the queen?

Emperor Yuanshou didn't even bother to think about the purpose of the queen's stupidity, so he issued an order with a swipe of a pen: "Changping was ordered to return to the capital for some reason, and he is still wearing a crime, so it is inconvenient to move around, temporarily imprisoned in the mansion, and interrogated later. "