Lord Prime Minister

As the weather warmed up, everything began to recover, and the beginning of spring was less than ten days after the wedding of the three princesses.On the first day of spring to welcome the spring and pray for a good harvest, the emperor personally led all the officials out of the palace to worship the god of agriculture and cultivate the land.

The preparations for Qingeng, which started a month in advance, are more like a performance than labor. The tedious rituals and steps have to be rehearsed repeatedly before the official start.One-third of an acre of land cultivated by the emperor is also carefully sifted soil, and then covered with fertile soil.At that time, the emperor took off his yellow robe and put on his own farming uniform. He held the plow with his left hand and the whip with his right. He plowed the field three times back and forth and then stepped down from the east steps.

Afterwards, all civil and military officials also wore plain clothes and started farming. Officials from Shuntian Prefecture commanded the sowing of new seeds, and then special personnel covered the soil.In this way, the annual plowing can be considered complete.

Emperor Guangcheng attached great importance to agricultural production, and even brought into full play the level of meticulousness in farming. He specially selected a hundred farmers from the people of the capital as assistance, and asked people to pretend to be the four gods of wind, rain, thunder and lightning, implying that the weather will be smooth and rainy throughout the year.

Mu Zihuai was only a sixth-rank official historian, so naturally he didn't need to participate in it, he just had to wait aside.

In the early morning of that day, Emperor Guangcheng took all his officials to the eastern suburbs, worshiped the God of Agriculture at the Xiannong Altar, and then changed into his own farming uniform.

Long Xiu, Shen Li, and Fu Shi were all officials of the fifth rank. At this time, they had already changed into plain clothes, and they followed other officials into the farming platform with agricultural tools.

Immediately after sowing, someone specially assigned to cover the soil, around the viewing platform stood officials below the fifth rank and a hundred farmers selected, and the four "gods" of wind, rain, thunder and lightning "cast spells" around the viewing platform to bless today's harvest and joy.

Emperor Guangcheng stood on the high platform and watched all the officials working. Two guards with swords stood beside him, and behind them were two maidservants holding barrier fans.

The ice and snow of last winter have melted, and the cool breeze is blowing under the warm sun. It can be predicted that the golden autumn in a few months will be a harvest season.Emperor Guangcheng slightly looked down at the hundreds of officials who bent over and worked hard, and was very happy. The Daguang Dynasty was going to prosperity under his rule, and the power of the country would be pushed to its peak by him.

He squinted his eyes slightly, and what appeared in his mind was the prosperity and prosperity of the country. Before he accomplished this goal, he would sit on the throne forever, and no one was allowed to peep.

On the viewing platform, most of the land has been sown with seeds. The officials who are used to being pampered and do not touch the spring water with their fingers are too tired to stand up even though they are just digging holes and sowing seeds.Fortunately, it only happens once a year, and the emperor has no choice but to grit his teeth to support it.

The four "gods" of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning shook their heads and pretended to be ghosts. The farmers watched the potbellied officials staggering and staggered, and the officials who were not high enough were bored, complaining about when they would be able to reach the dividing line of the fifth rank.No one noticed that this place, which had been cleared countless times a month ago, was heavily guarded and well-defended, and a bright light shone just less than a hundred feet away from the farming platform of relatives.

Long Xiu planted a seed, raised his head and stretched his waist, a white light flashed in the corner of his eyes.In the next moment, an arrow flew out through the air, and with a low sound of the arrow, it went straight to Emperor Guangcheng on the high platform.

The people around didn't seem to notice, or didn't react in time, in a blink of an eye, Long Xiu threw the short hoe in his hand high into the air, and shot down the arrow over the viewing platform.

When an arrow landed, everyone noticed the danger, all officials fled in panic, and the scene was in chaos.

Mu Zihuai was behind him, and suddenly he saw hundreds of officials on the viewing platform throwing away their farm tools and running out. He was a little confused, but the prince standing in the crowd was calm and composed, and saw Long Xiu casually picking up a sickle that was discarded on the ground and throwing it at the emperor. He ran to the observation deck where he was standing.

Halfway through the run, he threw the sickle in his hand into the air, and the sickle hit something in the air, and both of them fell down. Mu Zihuai squinted his eyes and looked carefully, and it turned out to be a short arrow.

Long Xiu didn't stop, and stepped up the steps in two steps, only to see a person rushing up the steps on the other side, dressed in a black guard uniform, holding a short blade in his hand, leaning over to be protected by four guards with knives behind him. Emperor Guangcheng approached.

Someone wanted to assassinate the emperor, Mu Zihuai saw it clearly now, Prince Minqing was the first to pick up the arrow that was shot down by Long Xiu on the ground, just glanced at it, then turned and ran towards the viewing platform.

At this moment, the assassin had already started fighting with the four guards. Before the two crossed their swords, their throats were blocked by the nimble assassin. The other two stood in front of Emperor Guangcheng. Can't stop the man's momentum.

With a palm of his left hand, he knocked away the guard standing in front of Emperor Guangcheng. The short blade of his right hand flashed coldly and opened wide, and the other guard stepped back hurriedly to protect Emperor Guangcheng. His chest was still cut open. .

After a successful blow, the assassin rushed forward. At this time, Long Xiu just arrived, grabbed his shoulder with his right hand, and pulled the forward assassin back with brute force. There was a deep gash in the chest.

The assassin was thrown back a certain distance, fell to the ground with his buttocks, supported the ground with his palms, stood upside down, and swiped his hands towards his ankles.Long Xiu panicked and took a step back, barely dodging it, lifted his feet with his bare hands, and yelled to turn him over.

The upside-down assassin did something, a sharp knife popped out from the tip of his shoe, and his legs twirled around.Long Xiu didn't defend himself for a while, he was stabbed in the shoulder, and immediately took a step back.

Looking around, there is no close weapon.The guard who was seriously injured in front of Emperor Guangcheng on the opposite side suddenly yelled and threw the cross knife in his hand.

Long Xiu stretched out his hand to grab it, held the knife and slashed, leaving a knife in the back of the assassin who had already taken a step back.The assassin rolled around on the ground, squatted down and stood firm, and looked up at Chen Yaojin, Long Xiu, who had killed halfway.

Long Xiu had a weapon in his hand, let alone be afraid of him, he rushed forward to preempt the attack, the white blade made it easy to chop or slash, and the attack was menacing, forcing the assassin back a few steps.

Prince Minqing also rushed over at this time, he had drawn out a long sword on the way, and rushed into the fight.A soft sword fluttered and together with Long Xiu firmly suppressed the assassin.

The man was forced to retreat to a corner, seeing that he was unable to win, his eyes flashed, a small and delicate crossbow popped out from his left wrist, and a sharp crossbow arrow was shot out, the blackened arrow might be poisonous.

Long Xiu frowned, and leaned back to avoid the crossbow arrows.The assassin got a gap and flew towards Emperor Guangcheng, ready to fight to the death.

Huangfu Yunhua dodged the poisonous arrow sideways, seeing through the assassin's thoughts, Long Xiu on the right leaned back, the emperor was on his left, only two steps away from the prince.

The assassin's dagger had already reached the emperor's body, Huangfu Yunhua remembered the pattern on the short arrow, his body that was moving quickly paused, instead flipped the soft sword in his hand, and flew towards the assassin, the software slid left and right in the air , lost the direction and did not hit.

One miss, Huangfu Yunhua's feet were blown by the wind, and he rushed to Emperor Guangcheng at an extremely fast speed, instead of blocking the assassin's short blade, he flew forward, with his back facing the assassin, and firmly protected Emperor Guangcheng. live.

With a puff, the blade pierced into the flesh, Huangfu Yunhua grunted, and moved half a step forward unsteadily.

Long Xiu, who was a little far away from the emperor, followed closely, picked up the soft sword thrown by the prince just now, and stabbed at the assassin's neck. The long sword bounced around and wrapped the assassin's neck.

Long Xiu pulled hard, the sharp blade slid and tightened, his neck was cut off in an instant, the assassin's head rolled off, blood spurted several feet high, and the nearest Long Xiu was covered in blood.

Huangfu Yunhua was stabbed in the back, fortunately the assassin missed the direction and did not hurt the vitals, but the short blade also sank completely, almost piercing through the back.Seeing the assassin's death at this time, he was finally relieved, spewed out a mouthful of dirty blood, dyed the yellow robe of the emperor in front of him red, and then lost his strength and wanted to fall down.

Emperor Guangcheng quickly reached out to support him, only to see that the fifth prince's eyes were closed tightly, his face turned pale, as if he had lost consciousness.

In just a quarter of an hour, the assassin had already been taken down. The officials who were still fleeing just now looked back, and some started to run back again. A few who were close rushed up to the stage, and stretched out their hands to take the fifth prince from the hand of the emperor. Come over, someone called the imperial doctor to come forward.

Emperor Guangcheng saw that after the crisis was over, the officials who had just wanted to protect themselves ran back and were furious, but thinking about the serious injuries of the fifth son, he held back his anger and handed him over.Then a few more people arrived, knelt on the ground and yelled that help was too late.

Emperor Guangcheng was furious, grabbed the big knife from the guard's hand, stepped forward and slashed at the shoulder of one person, forcibly chopped off one of the man's arms, angry, and slashed at the other person several times one after another.

The officials were terrified, shaking their bodies like sifting chaff, prostrate on the ground, not daring to look up, and not daring to run away.The emperor's face was spattered with blood, his brows were wide open, the official was chopped into several pieces, he threw the knife away, stepped forward and kicked several other officials to the ground.The person who was kicked over shivered and got up to kneel again, with snot and tears running down his face, for fear that the emperor would be angry again.

Emperor Guangcheng took a few deep breaths, half of his anger subsided, he turned around and asked the imperial doctor who was treating the fifth prince's wound. "How? Is the injury serious?"

The imperial doctor threw Huangfu Yunhua on the ground, the environment here was poor, and he was afraid that the dagger would cause a lot of bleeding, so he had no choice but to let the dagger stick on the prince's back.He dug out the life-saving pills he had brought and mixed them with water for the prince to take, and then carefully cut the clothes around the wound with scissors, then he kept kneeling and turned around to report to the emperor: "There is no harm to the vitals, but there is no good medicine to stop the bleeding here. , I am afraid that the blood will not stop once the dagger is pulled out, so it should be sent back to the palace as soon as possible and handled properly."

Emperor Guangcheng turned his head to see the pale face of the fifth prince, and immediately shouted angrily: "Hurry up! Get my sedan chair and carefully send the fifth prince to the palace for treatment."

The guards got the order, and under the instructions of the imperial doctor, they carefully lifted the seriously injured fifth prince onto the sedan chair, and the group left in a hurry.

At this time, only Long Xiu and Emperor Guangcheng were left on the viewing platform, both of them were covered in blood, and they knelt down with the others, not daring to move at all.The blood of the three corpses on the ground stained the ground red. Emperor Guangcheng looked at Long Xiu with admiration in his eyes.

Long Xiu suddenly bowed his head and knelt down, the emperor's voice sounded above his head.

"Long Qianhu is indeed a hero and talented person. He has made great contributions to saving him. After returning to the palace, I will definitely reward him heavily."

Long Xiu didn't dare to raise his head, fearing that the blood on his face would bump into the emperor, so he just cupped his hands to thank the emperor.

The eldest prince and the second prince came belatedly and knelt down to apologize as soon as they came to the stage. Emperor Guangcheng was still angry and did not look at them.The First Prince took out two more crossbow arrows.

"Father, my son went to check the assassin's hiding place just now, and found a waist-opening crossbow on a tree. These are the two crossbow arrows he shot earlier."

Only then did Emperor Guangcheng look back at the crossbow arrows in his hand. They were two four-bearded arrows with four beards engraved with grooves. The crossbows fired from the waist were amazingly powerful. They were used to surprise the enemy during sieges. General's.

Seeing this, the second prince immediately said: "I went to interrogate the head of the guard who is in charge of security today. He said that no one was allowed to enter here since a month ago. This person should have come in among the guards. According to the guards of the same team Said, this person has been in ambush in the team for a full month."

The two were talking to each other, the emperor stretched out his hand to pick up a crossbow arrow, the arrow was black, it must have been coated with poison, this man wanted my life, his heart is poisonous!

Flipping the crossbow arrow, there is a small pattern engraved on the tail of the sword. It is an eagle with wings spread, very familiar.

"This pattern..."

Halfway through the speech, the eldest prince immediately said: "Royal father, as far as I know, this pattern...is exactly the family emblem of Prince Minqing."

"Minqing..." Emperor Guangcheng clenched his hand holding the crossbow arrow, and Huangfu Yunhua, covered in blood and flying to rescue him, appeared in his mind, his slightly squinted eyes could not see the surge in his heart.

After a while, he put the crossbow back again, and looked at the two princes kneeling on the ground with unclear meaning. "Take them back to the palace together, and investigate thoroughly."

After all, Emperor Guangcheng looked up at Qinengtai. There were already a lot of people running away, and the rest of them bowed their heads and knelt on the ground.

I didn't see you just now, but now I'm in a hurry.

snort!

Emperor Guangcheng snorted coldly, waved his yellow robe and let out a whirring sound, and said in a deep voice: "Send everyone back to the palace, and arrest those who escaped and put them in prison. After interrogation, no matter what the result is, all of them will be beheaded."

All the officials lowered their bodies again, with their faces almost on the ground, and wailed in unison: "The emperor calms down."

Emperor Guangcheng turned a deaf ear and strode down.

"Sign up, go back to the palace."

Mu Zihuai knelt on the ground and dared to raise his head when he felt that the emperor was gone. He and the others had fallen to the ground and could not get up. He looked up and looked around. Long Xiu had already left with the emperor, and the prince was also sent to the palace for treatment. , Fu Shi and Shen Li supported each other, and they had already been pushed over by the guards.

"Academician Shen, Master Fu." Mu Zihuai stood up and greeted him. At this moment, he didn't bow his hands together, and the two looked a little unhappy, so they raised their hands as a gesture.

"My lord, let's go." While speaking, another guard came to pull Mu Zihuai and take him to the back of the Qingengtai. At this time, all the officials have gathered here, and there are no fewer than a hundred people wearing various official robes. Good standing.

Mu Zihuai stood at the back, waiting for the team to slowly enter the city and walk towards the Meridian Gate.When passing by the market, a large number of people were attracted to watch and discuss. Everyone knows about the plowing today, but how it happened like this is really at a loss, but seeing that even the high-ranking officials were escorted, the people who saw it also panicked. Those who reacted quickly went home and closed the door to hide, not daring to stay here.

Hundreds of officials were escorted to the Meridian Gate, searched one by one before they were let in, and escorted by guards with cross-knife to the outside of Jiaotai Hall, under the scorching sun, all the officials knelt down one after another, waiting for the emperor's punishment.

Until night fell, the palace was lit with lamps, and the dim light illuminated a group of people kneeling in front of Jiaotai Hall.Mu Zihuai didn't eat for a day, and knelt here all afternoon. Like other officials, his knees were already numb and he couldn't feel the pain. He didn't dare to move his body. If there was any movement, he would collapse.

He didn't know what the prince was doing now, nor did he know what Long Xiu was doing now, and there was no news from the emperor. After the prince was taken away, he didn't know what the first prince and the second prince had said to the emperor.Mu Zihuai didn't know anything about these things, and when they would kneel down and whether they would be implicated, a series of questions jumped in their hearts, and in the end they were all unsolvable.

Since ancient times, assassinating the emperor has been a major crime against the nine clans. As long as there is even a little connection, the emperor will not kill all the civil and military officials. Very likely.

As I saw at Qinengtai today, after staying in the palace for a long time, many people have already forgotten that the current emperor washed the palace with blood and stepped on the corpses of his brothers before ascending to the throne.

The emperor's methods will only become more and more ruthless, and will never disappear.