To The Land of Nevernight

Tang Shen was full of doubts, sat down, picked up chopsticks and ate the food obediently.

This is Tang Shen's first time entering the Right Prime Minister's Mansion.This house is located in the east of the city, covering a very wide area and magnificent.Don't talk about other places, just look at the flower hall for guests. On the screen wall are landscape paintings by famous painters of this dynasty, and on the wall are authentic works of calligraphers from the previous dynasty. .

Feel free to take one out, it is a thousand taels of silver.

However, when Wang Quan asked Tang Shen to come to the house for a banquet, there were really no other people, just the two of them.

In the huge Right Prime Minister's Mansion, there is no sound at this moment.The servants brought dishes to the table, and Tang Shen was more and more confused, how could he eat the dishes.He thought about it in his heart, but he was also worried that Wang Quan was so particular about eating and being unable to speak, so he could only ask about his confusion after eating.

Who would have thought that the meals served in the kitchen would come one after another, seemingly endless.

Tang Shen sensed that something was wrong, he put down his chopsticks and said, "Your Majesty has seen Mr. Wang."

Wang Quan smiled and said, "Just call me uncle."

Tang Shen was stopped for a moment, he was dumb for a moment, and said, "Uncle."

Wang Quan nodded: "Not bad."

Tang Shen: "Uncle asked me to come here today, but he has something to talk about."

Wang Quan was surprised and said: "Why did you say that? I couldn't just want to see you, so I took you to the house to have a look while Zifeng was away?"

Tang Shen: "..."

Tang Shen: "If my uncle wants to see me, he can see me anytime, so why rush for a while. Besides, Mr. Wang... Mr. Wang went to Youzhou, and he won't be able to come back in ten days and half a month. Uncle came from a family and paid attention to etiquette. I'm a junior, I should be the one who came to pay my uncle a New Year's greeting, but I didn't expect it, I was out of courtesy. If my uncle wants to see me, all he needs to do is say, I will come, and I don't have to be so hasty like today."

"Rush?"

"Isn't it rushing to bring people here without a famous post?"

Wang Quan looked at Tang Shen steadfastly, he stroked his beautiful beard, and said with a smile: "Today I know why my nephew has to be you."

Tang Shen blushed, luckily the night was so dark that no one could see it.

While the two were talking, two more snacks were served in the kitchen.Seeing that one dish was served faster than the other, the previous dish was removed before taking two bites to make way for the next dish.Tang Shen himself was a fourth-rank official, and he also ate a lot of delicacies after Wang Zifeng, but in the past five years, the sum of the dishes he had eaten was not as much as what he had seen today.

The more dishes were served, the heavier Tang Shen's heart sank.

He said, "Uncle, what's the matter?"

Wang Quan: "What's the matter? Maybe it's something, maybe it's nothing. If it's nothing, it's fine. If it's something... just let it go."

Tang Shen froze in place.

After the hour of Hai, and approaching the hour of midnight, it was dark.Wang Quan sipped tea leisurely, while Tang Shen sat beside him silently.When it was midnight, I suddenly heard a flurry of footsteps coming from outside the house.Wang Quan's hand holding the teacup was clenched suddenly, and Tang Shen also straightened his back.

However, the sound of footsteps had nothing to do with the Right Prime Minister's Mansion, it seemed that they were just passing by, and then walked away.

But since then, the sound of footsteps and horseshoes has never stopped.

The beam of light from the torch illuminated half of Shengjing City, making half of the sky blood red.The people had long been woken up by the sound of soldiers and horses walking, but they didn't dare to open the door to see what was going on. They all stood against the door of their house, for fear that someone would enter the house.But the goal of these soldiers was not the houses, they went all the way north, straight into the palace.

Just after midnight, an official sent a letter to the Right Prime Minister's mansion.

"The second prince forced the palace!"

Tang Shen was stunned, but Wang Quan let out a long sigh.

Tang Shen came back to his senses, he immediately stood up and asked, "Are you serious?"

Official: "The news from the palace, how can it be untrue. I heard that the emperor has been lying on the bed for a long time and has not woken up. The second prince colluded with the traitor and took the opportunity to force the palace. Now that the other two princes have got the news, they have to go to the palace to rescue them. This is all the news that the right minister asked the younger one to inquire about, and it is also the door given by the adult, how can it be untrue."

Tang Shen sat down on the chair.

After a long time, the officials left, and only Tang Shen and Wang Quan were left in the hall.

In this Shengjing city, there are only bursts of shouts, the neighing of horses and the marching sounds of soldiers.The direction of the palace was already shrouded in flames.The Right Prime Minister's Mansion was some distance away from the imperial palace, and one could only see the red light that soared into the sky from a distance, but the surroundings were completely silent, and there was nothing.

However, after a while, the steward of the Right Prime Minister's Mansion came to report: "The Fourth Prince Zhao Jing sent someone to invite Mr. Xianggong to enter the palace together to arrest the traitor."

Wang Quan said indifferently: "Can you send him away?"

Butler: "Sent away."

Wang Quan: "Then it will be fine."

Just after finishing speaking, another dish was served in the kitchen.The white porcelain bowl and plate fell on the table with a thumping sound, just like Tang Shen's mood at the moment.His mind was muddled, and since he entered the Right Prime Minister's Mansion, he has been lost, and he doesn't know what happened.Now, he suddenly woke up, as if an invisible hand pushed through the clouds and mist, and finally let him glimpse the truth.

Tang Shen raised his head and said, "Nowadays, some people come to my residence and invite me to enter the palace together?"

When Tang Shen said this, Yao San was opening the door of Tanhua's mansion halfway across Shengjing City.He said to a middle-aged man who looked like a counselor: "My lord is not at the house, he has already gone out."

The counselor was taken aback.

In the right minister's mansion, Wang Quan's eyes lit up: "Where did you start talking about this?"

Tang Shen: "The second prince rebelled and forced the palace. If the other two princes want to arrest him, they must not go there rashly. That is because they have learned from others. They want to invite a minister to the palace to help them. The best candidates are several first-rank officials. For example, Uncle, you. However, ordinary officials are free to invite them. If Uncle doesn’t want to go, even the prince can’t force him. So when Uncle sends people away, they must go, and they have no choice.”

"Not bad." Wang Quan signaled him to continue.

"But I'm different. As an advising doctor, my official position is the fourth rank. Even if I am favored by the emperor, it is only the fourth rank. What the prince wants me to do, how can I not follow. If I enter the command of a certain prince , that represents my husband, my brother, and even your uncle. You sent someone to bring me to the house overnight, so that's why you sent me!"

Wang Quan laughed out loud, and it happened that there was a sound of weapons clashing from outside the wall.He laughed heartily, as if he had no fear of things outside the wall, and he praised: "Zifeng's heart is pleased with you, it's reasonable, and it should be so!"

Tang Shen tightened his fingers: "But I want to know something."

"But it doesn't matter."

"How did uncle know that the second prince will force the palace tonight?"

"Why don't you guess again?"

Tang Shen closed his mouth and pondered for a long time.

The confrontation near the Youxiang Mansion has ended, and everything has returned to tranquility.

"Uncle is different from me. You have been in the court for many years, and there are trustworthy people everywhere. Perhaps it is from the transfer of soldiers and horses in the five cities tonight, from the generals of the military camps in the suburbs of Beijing, and from the imperial forest army... ..." After a pause, Tang Shen hesitated for a moment, and asked, "But since my uncle already knew about it, others must know about it. His Majesty is seriously ill, and now only the two princes can stop this palace change. The prince forced the palace, and the fourth and fifth princes entered the palace to rescue..."

Tang Shen's voice stopped abruptly.

Looking at the dishes on the table, Wang Quan smiled gently and said, "Do you feel something is wrong?"

"Uncle is the minister of the Great Song Dynasty. If you had known about it early, you would not have just watched it happen like this. Apart from you, Ji Xiang must have known about it, and he would never sit back and watch everything. So let you Standing on the sidelines, watching the two princes fighting with the second prince..."

Tang Shen suddenly closed his mouth and didn't say anything more.

Wang Quan put down the teacup and sighed: "Zifeng told me a year ago that he couldn't see through, but he just said, believe in that person. As the saying goes, three cobblers are worth one Zhuge Liang, but this is just It's just a joke. Who in the Great Song Dynasty can compare to that one?"

Tang Shen: "But why is everything?"

"Why? You want to know, I want to know, and Zifeng also wants to know. But no one knows except the man himself!"

In Shengjing City, soldiers are in chaos.

The officials got up wrapped in clothes one after another, shivering in the study one by one, not knowing what to do.

Zuo Cheng Chen Linghai heard about the second prince's rebellion, and immediately changed his face: "How could this be?" The fifth prince Zhao Ji sent someone to invite him, he hesitated for a moment, and sighed: "I said I was sick, and the door was closed to see no visitors."

You Cheng Xu Yan is even more interesting.

As early as yesterday, Xu Wei left Shengjing to play in the farm in Beizhili.It happened to be the Chinese New Year season, the officials' holiday, and no one knew that Xu Wei was not in Beijing.

In front of Zuo Xiang Ji Wengji's gate, Zhao Jing and Zhao Ji's troops were also waiting on both sides.

The gate of Zuo Xiang's mansion was closed tightly, and the mansion was pitch black and silent.No one answered the knock on the door of these generals, but these generals refused to leave and just stood guard outside the door.

In the northwest corner of Zuo Xiangfu, in a simple and remote courtyard, an oil lamp was slightly lit, illuminating the small room.

No one would have guessed that this was Ji Wengji's study room.

There was only one oil lamp in the room, and Zuo Xiang and his wife sat opposite to each other on both sides of the table. With this small light, one bowed his head to sew clothes, and the other wrote with a pen.

Mrs. Ji mended the sleeves. She raised her head and saw the words written on Ji's photographic paper.There was a stagnation in her throat, and after a while, she said softly: "It's so late, why don't you go to bed?"

When Ji Xiangru just woke up, he raised his head and looked at his old wife: "Madam tired?"

Now that the time has passed, both of them are old bones, how can they not be tired.

But Mrs. Ji smiled and didn't speak.

Ji Wengji lowered his head and looked at the words he wrote, his gaze stopped and he was suddenly speechless.

I saw only one word densely written on the entire side of the rice paper——

"Zhao".

Ji Weng leaned back on the back of the chair after collecting, looking at the paper full of "Zhao" characters, he pointed to this character, and said to his old wife: "Madam, what character did I write?"

"Look at the character Zhao."

"It's Zhao Zi, whose Zhao Zi is it. It's Zhao Shang, Zhao Jing, Zhao Ji...it can't be Zhao Ao. Maybe it's Zhao Fu?"

Madam Ji's complexion changed. Although she is a boudoir woman, she also knows that Zhao Fu is the name of the current Holy Majesty.

"Master!"

"Or Zhao Zhen?"

Suddenly, Ji Wengji stood up and went to get his clothes.Mrs. Ji hurriedly followed: "What is this for?"

Ji Xiang smiled and said, "There was a knock on the door outside, didn't Madam hear it?"

Mrs. Ji didn't know what happened, but she could hear the sound of fighting all over the city that night.Her eyes were red, and she complained: "But why don't you go out?" While talking, she straightened Ji Wengji's clothes.

"Can, and can't."

"Eh?"

Ji Wengji smiled loudly, raised his wife's rough hands, and said in a gentle voice, "In the past 50 years, I have worked hard for my wife. Life in Shengjing is not easy. For my husband, remember, there are still some acres of land at home."

Mrs. Ji: "Why are you talking about this?"

"Just remembering."

Mrs. Ji personally sent Ji Xiang out, seeing that he was about to open the door, she couldn't help but said again: "Do you really have to go out?"

Ji Xiang stared at his wife seriously: "Really, definitely."

"Why?"

Ji Xiang smiled happily: "It's fine if it's not in front of you, since it's in front of you, how can you see it come again!"

The next moment, Ji Xiang opened the door of the mansion, the fourth prince Zhao Jing and the fifth prince Zhao Ji had been waiting outside the mansion for a long time, when Ji Wengji suddenly appeared, none of them reacted.

Ji Xiang was wearing a dark red official robe. He looked around and said without anger, "Go to the palace."

"Yes!"