Madam, protect me!

Jinyang.

In the county town.

A middle-aged man in coarse cloth walked out of the Wang family gate, stretched out his thumb, gently wiped the corner of his mouth, and gently rubbed off the trace of blood on his thumb.

Although Jinyang is not as prosperous as Chang'an, it is also the second most prosperous county in Daxia. Today is the market day, and the main street is crowded with pedestrians and vendors.

He walked along the wide street, and everyone he met along the way unconsciously made way for him.

The middle-aged man walked through two streets and walked into an inn. He pushed open the door of a room on the second floor. An elegant man sat in front of the window, staring at the flow of people on the street.

The middle-aged man walked to the window, put his hands behind his back, and said, "Victory and defeat are common, there is no need to be obsessed with the moment. If you fall here, you can get up from somewhere else."

The elegant man retracted his gaze and asked, "What does the Wang family say?"

The middle-aged man said, "The Wang family has become a royal family, which is their dream, but to really make those two old foxes go, just talking is far from enough."

The elegant man said, "The Wang family can be passed down for thousands of years, and there must be a reason for it to be passed down for thousands of years. If they are not sure, they probably won't take action."

The middle-aged man smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if it succeeds or not. It was originally a casual move when I picked you up. A great opportunity can't be missed. If we don't come, sooner or later someone else will come..."

He patted the elegant man on the shoulder and said, "Although the King of Han failed, the Wang family has created a better opportunity. Whether it is a win or a loss, let's talk about it for now. Let's go. When we go back this time, Master has new arrangements for you..."

Chang'an

During this period, the Donggong case, which had caused a lot of uproar, finally subsided.

But the impact of this case has not ended yet.

The three provinces have officially issued an edict that an additional imperial examination will be held next year, and this imperial examination will admit 300 Jinshi.

This imperial examination was originally held extra, and the number of admitted people was three times that of the usual imperial examination.

The students of the major academies in Chang'an were all crazy with joy.

The Donggong case had nothing to do with them, but it could completely change their fate.

Those who were originally ranked after the 100th in the imperial examination had no chance to become Jinshi, but in this imperial examination, they had the opportunity to change their fate against the will of heaven.

This is all thanks to one person.

In recent days, students from major academies have been embarrassed to scold Li Xuanjing.

Also happy are the court officials who were promoted with the help of this incident.

They obviously did nothing, but they were inexplicably promoted, and they were all powerful officials in the three provinces and six ministries. They took at least ten years of detours at once. Who can not be happy?

If it weren't for the fact that many families in Chang'an were holding funerals, they wouldn't have been too ostentatious and would have held a three-day banquet to celebrate.

But for the powerful people in Chang'an, this half month was a terrifying half month.

Li Xuanjing killed many powerful people, and His Majesty let it go. Everyone was afraid that they would be the next to be killed.

But they didn't dare to run.

It might have been fine. If they ran away, they would be accused of fleeing for fear of crime by Li Xuanjing and might be killed on the spot.

That person is definitely capable of doing such a thing.

After the Dali Temple announced the closure of the case, an unprecedented migration of powerful people occurred in Chang'an.

Dozens of powerful people, big and small, sold all their assets in Chang'an at a low price and moved their families to other places.

As long as Li Xuanjing was still in the court, they didn't plan to come back.

This incident caused them a great psychological shadow. The power of the powerful is a privileged power, but in Chang'an, even if they had a golden medal of immunity from death, they didn't feel safe.

Although Chang'an is extremely prosperous, it is possible to experience the beauty of this colorful world.

But no matter how beautiful the world is, there are still life-threatening experiences.

For various reasons, those who could not move became extremely honest and warned their children very seriously that they could eat, drink, gamble and whore, but they must abide by the law. Anyone who dared to commit crimes would be expelled from the family and be dealt with by the Dali Temple...

In just half a month, the situation in Chang'an and the court changed drastically.

From the eight princes competing for the throne, it became a three-way confrontation.

Prince Chun, Prince Gong, and Prince Rui became the only remaining regent princes, each taking turns to regent for four months.

Among them, behind Prince Rui were the Cui and Pei families of the six major families.

Prince Rui's mother was the legitimate daughter of the Pei family, and Prince Rui himself married the daughter of the Cui family.

However, the Cui and Pei families were not like the Wang family. Although many people in the family served as officials in the court, they never took the initiative to participate in party disputes. This time, no officials participated in the purge of the emperor's side, and they were not implicated.

Prince Gong is the laziest and never participates in court disputes. When it is his turn to supervise the country, he does not even hold court meetings, which makes it easy for people to ignore him.

But in fact, three of the six great families, Zheng, Du, and Lu, have some kind of marriage relationship with Prince Gong.

The wife of Prince Gong is the daughter of Zheng, the wife of Prince Gong is from Du, and the daughter of Prince Gong, Princess Yun'an, is married to the Lu family.

Among the three princes, only Prince Chun has no background.

His mother is a palace maid and has no maternal family to rely on.

However, over the years, Li Xuanjing has cleared all obstacles on his way to power, and the current situation of three powers in the court was also created by Li Xuanjing.

Relying on only Li Xuanjing, Prince Chun firmly controls the initiative in the court.

In recent days, both the people and the court officials have been discussing which of the three princes can be in power.

Prince Chun's Mansion.

Kitchen.

It is no secret in Chang'an that Prince Chun likes food.

The kitchen in Prince Chun's Mansion is larger than the imperial dining room, and the chefs in the Prince's Mansion are no less skilled than the imperial chefs.

At this moment, in the kitchen of the palace, King Chun took a sip of the soup with a jade spoon. After savoring it carefully, he shook his head and said: "No, although I can taste it, Xuan Jing tastes lighter and he may not like it. Remember to use less soup next time." Put some salt..."

After shaking his head, he began to taste another cup.

This soup is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It takes a whole day to make it once. If there is a problem with the taste, it will take another day to make it again.

So he made people boil ten cups at a time.

He chose the one with the most suitable taste from the ten cups. He wrapped the soup cup with cotton cloth, put it in the food box, walked out of the kitchen, and said: "Get the car ready, go to Dali Temple..."

Prince Rui's Mansion.

study.

It was already very cold in the winter months, but in the study room, because of the heater, there was no chill at all. King Rui shook the feather fan with one hand and turned the pages of the book with the other.

Thinking about what happened in the past month and a half, he still felt like he was dreaming.

King Han and King You disappeared inexplicably, and the three imperial brothers were also disqualified from supervising the country.

Over the years, he fought with the King of Han, the King of You, and the King of Chun. He exhausted all his means and fought back and forth without achieving any results. On the contrary, his power became weaker and weaker.

This time I didn’t do anything, but I reached the pinnacle of my life overnight.

As long as he defeats Prince Chun and Prince Gong again, he will have no opponent.

He did not dare to fight against King Chun.

Li Xuanjing's arrogance was at its peak, and he had to avoid its sharp edges.

Prince Gong, he doesn’t need to fight.

With Prince Gong’s brains, if he became emperor, Daxia would be destroyed in his hands.

All he had to do now was wait.

Prince Chun and Prince Gong are almost forty years old, and he is less than thirty.

Youth is his greatest advantage.

The method of immortality studied by his father seems to be very effective. It may be able to survive Prince Chun and Prince Gong to death. Even if they cannot survive, it can survive until they are old and weak. By then, he will not have to fight at all...

Prince Rui continued to read. What this page is about is sitting on a mountain and watching the tiger.

At a certain moment, King Rui suddenly raised his head, and a bright light flashed through his mind.

These few times, he was plotted against again and again. First he was retaliated by Li Xuanjing, and then he was attacked by the King of Han.

Only a few princes have this ability.

He always felt that the person who harmed him was King You.

He fought with the King of Han, which was most beneficial to King You.

It wasn't until both King Han and King You fell that he realized that he had ignored someone all this time...

Prince Gong's Mansion.

A middle-aged man in luxurious clothes poured a handful of rice into his hand. A green thrush immediately flew over and pecked at the palm of his hand.

The man gently stroked the thrush's head, and the thrush just looked up, then continued to lower its head and peck.

After it had finished eating all the rice, it gently flapped its wings and flew high into the sky.

Prince Gong patted the dust on his hands and said softly: "The world is really unpredictable..."

In fact, he has always regarded King Rui as his first opponent.

The father was unwilling to delegate power, and as time passed, the hope of King You and King Chun of Han, including himself, to ascend to the throne became slimmer.

That's why he designed Prince Rui again and again.

Including blaming King Rui for the death of Li Xuanjing's son, but that time, he miraculously survived.

It also included the assassination of Li Xuanjing's family. That time, the blame was successfully framed. Li Xuanjing's revenge caused King Rui to suffer heavy losses.

The case of Fengyang County Prince also involved the King of Han, Li Xuanjing, and King Rui, causing the King of Han to launch a crazy revenge against King Rui.

But the development of things was completely out of his control.

The case of Fengyang County Prince turned out to be a trigger, leading to the subsequent Wang Heng incident and involving the Wang family. Then, King You united everyone to clear the emperor, Li Xuanjing was completely killed, and King You of Han was demoted to a pauper. , the entire Wang family was wiped out with blood, and Prince Rui became one of the biggest beneficiaries.

Although this ending was not bad, for some reason, he always felt uneasy.

Li Mansion.

Li Xuanjing opened a standing cabinet in the study, wiped the dozen or so spiritual tablets in the cabinet one by one, lit a few incense sticks, and enshrined them in front of the spiritual tablets.

Butler Wu walked in from outside and said, "Sir, a letter was sent from Prince Rui's Mansion, saying it was for the master..."