Qi Huang

Bianliang City, the Imperial Palace.

Without the prosperity of summer, the vermilion palace walls seem to have been washed away by the years, losing their color and leaving only a faint shadow.There was a heavy rain last night, and the ground was covered with water. In the early morning of that day, Wang Qi and the Queen Mother walked side by side. Hearing the silence of the garden, he couldn't help but feel emotional.

"Even Duan'er has left the palace, and this Nuoda palace is even more lonely." The queen mother said sadly, "The longer I sit in this seat, the stronger the feeling of coldness and loneliness."

Wang Qi heard the words and said: "Why don't you see such emotions when you take the lives of others? If you really feel lonely, why don't you sit with me?"

The queen mother looked back at her and smiled: "Okay."

Wang Qi also waved his hands and laughed loudly: "I will not be fooled by you!"

The uncle and nephew hadn't talked about gossip like this for a long time.They dismissed the servants, picked a clean and uninhabited courtyard, and sat down to rest.

The Empress Dowager loved tea when she was young, and because the Wang family was proficient in tea ceremony, she learned a little bit by ear.After entering the palace, the skills became rusty, and until today, most of the memories have been annihilated in the past.

She casually brewed a cup of tea, and as soon as it was brought to her mouth, Wang Qi said: "Some time ago, did Xiao Ling make trouble again?"

For the specific trouble, Wang Qi still listened to what a liaison general in the army said.

That Xiao Ling went crazy for some reason, and ordered people to smash all the weapons in the martial arts training ground.When he was asked to stay in the palace to teach martial arts to the descendants of the aristocratic family, he listed these expenses one by one, and told the servants to get them no matter how difficult it was to find them.

What's going on now that it suddenly makes people smash it all up?

The Queen Mother pushed away the froth with the lid of the cup, and gave a shallow reply.

"If you want me to tell you, you should directly send troops to strangle those rebels from the Xiao family. Xiao Ling, who is in charge of the province, troubles you every day in the palace, and you can't kill him. It's troublesome to watch." Wang Qi said, suddenly What came to mind, "I heard that they have been seen in Yongzhou recently?"

The queen mother said coolly: "Where did you hear about it?"

Wang Qi was terrified.

The charming young empress dowager who could be called a beauty in front of him was indeed his niece.But for so many years, the two have changed from cooperation to separation, which is almost irreversible.He can still stand in front of the queen mother and tell her those small jokes because he is beyond the bottom line that the queen mother can reach.

So, this matter is the Queen Mother's rebellion?

Wang Qi's thoughts changed, but a bigger smile appeared on his face: "The army is well-informed, don't you know?"

The queen mother smiled, the coolness in her eyes dissipated, and she started another topic: "Compared to the Xiao family, the Li family is more worthy of your and my fear."

"Yes." Wang Qi nodded, "Didn't you promote that concubine of the Li family to serve in the military a few days ago? The effect of using the enemy to control the enemy is good, and besides, the concubine does not belong to the Li family... But I always feel that , the scheme is not perfect."

"Uncle, this is narrow-minded."

The Empress Dowager gently put down the teacup, wiped her mouth left and right with a handkerchief, and said lightly, "How can things in this world be perfect? ​​What you want, you must bear certain risks in the process."

It is a long and roundabout way to observe the internal struggles of the Li family and contain and disperse Li Jin's power in Beijing.

But still too slow.

She still has to wait for Li Jin to hibernate in Yongzhou, wait for him to return to Beijing, and then let him and Li Zheng fight each other... It's too slow, she can't wait, and she can't afford to wait.

It's better to just press Li Jin to death in Yongzhou. If he wants to come back, it must be his body.

The queen mother slowly rubbed the side of the cup, staring at the peach blossoms blooming on the cup, said: "I put the bait in Yongzhou."

"You mean..." Wang Qi thought for a moment, "The old department of the Xiao family? But... if this matter is really made public, it is just to lure Li Jin into taking the bait. It will do more harm than good to you and to the Wang family. If this is you The risk is too great.”

"No." The Queen Mother shook her head slowly.

She leisurely changed her sitting position, fumbled for a moment from the sleeve of the pipa, and held out half a copper token.

The token is not in an ordinary shape, except for the official official symbols, it has the shape of a beast and is lifelike.

Wang Qi's eyes widened suddenly when he saw this thing: "Tiger Talisman?!"

The queen mother withdrew her hand: "It's the tiger talisman in the hands of the Feng family."

Wang Qi was thinking a lot, and carefully outlined the shape of the half tiger talisman in his mind.

There is also half of it in the Southwest Army, which is collected by the commander in person.It can lead the forces of the Southwest, and cast an iron wall here.The other half was in the hands of King Huaiyuan, who sent troops to fight outside the northern border.The Tiger Talisman was split into two and scattered far away in two corners of the Great Zhou territory.In recent years, thanks to Feng Jiuyuan's cultural integration among the nomads in the north, there have been very few wars. Instead, Goguryeo in the southwest has repeatedly invaded, disturbing the peace of the border.

He was amazed that Feng Jiuyuan was willing to hand over the tiger talisman for a while, and he was surprised that the queen mother did so many actions without telling him, and his suspicion suddenly rose.But he thought about it, and suddenly thought that if the tiger talisman was in the hands of the queen mother, she would be able to call back the troops in northern Xinjiang at a critical moment. Even if Li Jin found the evidence of the year and finally wanted to force the palace to usurp the throne, it would be as difficult as heaven.

No, since that's the case, why did he go to the extra trouble to lure Li Jin to Yongzhou?

How did the Empress Dowager know that those tenacious old members of the Xiao Clan would flee to Yongzhou?

Unless...the bait is not the remnants of the evil party from Xiao's old department!

While his thoughts were chaotic, Wang Qi heard the queen mother lightly throw down another thunder.

She said, "Uncle, do you still remember Xie Qingyan?"

Xie Qingyan...

The familiar name turned into a thunderbolt and hit Wang Qi directly on the head, making him unable to recover for a long time.

When facing the moment of life and death, Wang Jinse was still a teenage girl, and she was still at the age of the late emperor Xie Xu's favor.That year, she knelt down in front of Wang Qi and wept till the pear blossoms rained on her face, so she begged Wang Qi to take the risk and fight for her and for her own fame and fortune.

However, more than ten years later, when Wang Qi looked at Wang Jinse again, he suddenly felt that he could no longer see the shadow of the crying little girl who only knew to rely on her beauty to gain favor.

After a long time, he shook his head with emotion, and said half-sighed and half-jokingly: "You, tell me the truth, is Xie Qingshan really not your own flesh and blood? Is Xie Xuan really not your own grandson?"

Xie Xuan's ruthlessness is exactly the same as yours.

For the first time, Wang Qi showed timidity in front of Wang Jinse.He saw Wang Jinse's face, but he didn't say anything.

When he was leaving, Wang Jinse called him and said something pointedly: "Bianliang is dry in winter, uncle needs to be careful of candlelight. There are frequent wars in the Southwest, uncle will go back to the southwest once the year is over."

He came to the palace in morning dew, and the sky was already full of sunset when he left.Wang Jinse watched him go away, put his hand into his sleeve, and rubbed his fingertips back and forth on the tiger amulet, his gorgeous face became more and more hazy under the sunset, like a fairy.

"Xing Lan..." Wang Jinse said to himself, "I really miss him a little bit."

At the beginning of the new rain, the dead branches are red, and the reflections in the rain are as misty as smoke, and a gust of wind blows away layers of illusory bubbles.

"I don't know if the child can return to the capital alive."