Don't go back to hometown

Xie Cheng couldn't leave the capital for the time being, because Emperor Wenqing couldn't forget his article on the day of the palace examination, and asked him to write a complete "Strategy for Rejuvenating the Country"-the answer sheet in the palace examination was limited, and Xie Cheng only briefly mentioned many problems and countermeasures. Can write in detail, and now Emperor Wenqing wants him to perfect it.

The deadline is before the Wanshou Festival in half a month.

This year, Emperor Wenqing's sanctuary was not in good health, and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty wrote to ask for the crown prince, but Qin Tianjian proposed to hold the Longevity Festival at this time to pray for blessings to the heavens, saying that it would eliminate the darkness and welcome the new year, keep the dragon's body healthy, and the country's prosperity.

Emperor Wenqing probably felt that natural and man-made disasters such as the snowstorm in the south of the Yangtze River and the Duan family's embezzlement of property really hindered the country's destiny, so he agreed to Qin Tianjian's proposal and ordered the Ministry of Rites to handle it.

A few days later, in the morning court, Shen Zhui, the commander of the Tianxin Mansion, added another piece of evidence to the case of the Duan family's embezzlement of property. At the same time, he accused King Zhong of being the mastermind behind the murder of the Nine Kings, and he even collaborated with the Duan family to hoard charcoal and cotton clothes and transport them to the south of the Yangtze River. , want to send money to the country.

There was an uproar all over the court for a while, and the number of memorials to King Shenzhong doubled.What's more, Shen Duan's family persecuted the people, and the loyal king's misbehavior caused heaven's punishment, causing heavy snow in the south of the Yangtze River and suffering for all people.

Emperor Wenqing was so angry that he was bedridden, but he refused to be crowned prince for a long time. He only ordered Zhongwang to be imprisoned, deprived of his title, and stayed for retrial.Duan Yu was thrown into prison, and Shen Feng, the deputy commander of Tianxin Mansion, was sent to the south of the Yangtze River to arrest Duan's family and bring them back to Beijing for trial.

The court was full of turmoil, but Duan Shuwen, Zhang Tao and others had already boarded the passenger ship back to Yangzhou under the arrangement of Xie Cheng and Jiang Xianyu.

This time Jiang Xianyu asked Xie Sangrou to take Xiaotangyuan and Su He away.

When I came here, I thought that the family would be neat and tidy and take care of each other, but now that the current situation is turbulent, I dare not keep a few little guys by my side.

Su He was entrusted with a heavy responsibility and promised repeatedly that he would take good care of Xiaotangyuan.

Xiao Tangyuan can speak simple words now, and no longer has to stick to Jiang Xianyu as before to feel at ease.But Jiang Xianyu knew that he was sensitive and shy, so he didn't coax him away, but said goodbye to him seriously, and promised to pick him up in a month.

Xiao Tangyuan couldn't fully understand, so she cried and made a fuss, and Jiang Xianyu coaxed her for a long time before she followed Xie Sangrou and the others to board the boat, sobbing.

Ping An Escort assigned some bodyguards to escort them back home, while Father Jiang, Mother Jiang, and Jiang Baizhou took a part of them to stay.

After seeing off the little glutinous rice balls, Jiang Xianyu was depressed for a while, until Li Yi quietly assigned them a job to let him and Jiang Baizhou get familiar with the defense of the capital as soon as possible, and then he regained his spirits.

……

Emperor Wenqing's birthday is at the end of April, when flowers fall and peaches and plums bear fruit, the whole country celebrates it for three days.

In addition to the few princes who were stranded in the capital, many princes also returned to Beijing from the place where they took office to celebrate the birthday of Emperor Wenqing.

Xie Cheng handed over the "Strategy for Rejuvenating the Country" to Emperor Wenqing the day before his birthday, and Emperor Wenqing, whose condition had improved a little, was delighted and invited him, a little Hanlin, to attend tomorrow's palace banquet.

"Bring that junior brother of yours together, it's so crowded." Emperor Wenqing said.

Xie Cheng didn't believe that Emperor Wen Qing didn't know what might happen at the banquet tomorrow—the banquet in the Forbidden Palace was the most crowded place, and the pressure on the guards of the Forbidden Army doubled;

Throughout the ages, how many poisonings and assassinations have occurred on palace banquets.If Zhong Wang jumps over the wall in a hurry, tomorrow night is the best time.There is also the deposed prince who is in the cold palace. If he doesn't give it a go while Emperor Wen Qing is alive, he may not have a chance to stand up again.

Emperor Wenqing still asked him to bring Jiang Xianyu in. Was he proud of the defense of the Forbidden Palace, or was he sure that the abolished prince and loyal king would not dare to rebel, and he was not afraid that Jiang Xianyu would have murderous intentions against him?

Or, Emperor Wenqing knew everything well, and arranged the situation for inviting the king into the urn?

Without waiting for Xie Cheng to answer, the chief eunuch handed him the token to enter the palace, and said: "Master Xie will bring this token into the palace tomorrow, and there will be palace people to guide you."

Xie Cheng couldn't refuse, so he could only bow down and thank him.

Li Yi and Fang Zhizhou were not surprised that Emperor Wen Qing invited Xie Cheng, but inviting Jiang Xianyu was worth pondering.

According to Li Yi's eyeliner report, King Zhong did have a lot of actions, and Prince Rui also held the Imperial Guards and the Gyeonggi Guards firmly in his hands, and he was very worried about Emperor Wen Qing's serious illness but he refused to make him the crown prince.

At that time, the two sides will meet first, and Li Yi can be the oriole.

Jiang Xianyu didn't think too much, and said to Xie Cheng: "Whether this is a Hongmen banquet or not, I will go with you."

Xie Cheng hesitated: "But... the danger is unpredictable."

"Then you resist the order and don't go." Jiang Xianyu said, "He may not be able to protect himself at that time, and he has no time to care whether we go or not."

Xie Cheng knew that what he said was ironic, they could only get along well with Li Yi if they entered the palace, but he didn't want Jiang Xianyu to go, and Jiang Xianyu also didn't want him to be in danger alone.

In the end, it was decided that the two of them would go together.

……

On the Longevity Day, Emperor Wenqing first went to the Taimiao Temple to pray for blessings at the auspicious time selected by the Qin Tianjian, and burned a hundred copies of the letter of repentance written by the loyal king himself, praying for the prosperity of the country and the people in the future.

This back and forth will waste a day's work, and it's time to hold the palace banquet.

Xie Cheng and Jiang Xianyu failed to follow the emperor's guard of honor to the Taimiao, so they could only enter the palace for the banquet according to the time.

The positions of the two were arranged together, belonging to the last of the officials present, and Jiang Xianyu, a fresh face, still received a lot of scrutiny.

Gradually, some older officials noticed the resemblance between him and the Empress Dowager Jiang, and began to discuss in low voices with horrified expressions on their faces.

Jiang Xianyu had excellent hearing ability and heard a lot of discussions, but his expression remained unchanged, with a calm and composed appearance.

"His Majesty is here!"

Emperor Wenqing appeared with the support of Empress Shen, and all the officials quickly stood up and knelt down to worship.

"Your Majesty and I will see you, and congratulate Your Majesty on longevity and endless generations!"

Jiang Xianyu felt a little awkward, but because of the occasion, he knelt down with Xie Cheng to salute, and quietly looked at Emperor Wen Qing.

Emperor Wenqing called everyone up, sat upright with Empress Shen, and raised his glass to the courtiers: "Today, I will have fun with all my lovers, and all my lovers don't have to be restrained, and come home with all their fun."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

After drinking this glass of light wine, the chief eunuch replaced Emperor Wen Qing's wine glass with a tea cup, and instead of tea leaves, wolfberry and ginseng slices were brewed.

Empress Shen brought some bland dishes for Emperor Wen Qing, and winked at the waste prince below.

——For today's palace banquet, all the deposed princes in the cold palace were released, but the loyal king was not able to attend.

The deposed prince immediately went forward with his wife and children to celebrate Emperor Wen Qing's birthday. The whole family lived in the cold palace for a long time, with thin faces and plain clothes, they looked quite pitiful.

The gift presented was not expensive, but 99 volumes of prayer scriptures copied by hand.

Emperor Wenqing seemed to be a little soft-hearted on today's occasion, so he let Empress Shen say goodbye to the emperor's eldest grandson who had already been weak.

Empress Shen was overjoyed, and pulled the abandoned prince's family to their knees to thank them.

Afterwards, Prince Rui, Prince Cheng, and Prince Yi came forward to celebrate their birthdays. There were only a few princes left under Emperor Wenqing's knees, and a few others died early.In addition, there were several other princesses, except for the two who were married far away, they were basically all here.

Counting it, Emperor Wenqing has many sons and grandchildren.

Li Mingya did not attend the palace banquet because she was unwell, it was unknown if she was really ill, or Prince Rui knew that today was a dangerous day and refused to let her enter the palace.Prince Rui presented the "Picture of Longevity" drawn by her to Emperor Wen Qing, who was very satisfied and bestowed a large amount of rewards.

After the princes and princesses, the clan and courtiers celebrated their birthdays.

Emperor Wenqing's spirit was uncharacteristically good tonight, he drank several cups of wolfberry and ginseng tea, and the dishes on the table moved a lot.

Finally it was Xie Cheng's turn to celebrate his birthday, and he brought Jiang Xianyu to present a jade Buddha carved from blood jade.

He knelt down with Jiang Xianyu and finished his congratulatory speech, but he couldn't hear Emperor Wenqing's response for a long time. When he looked up, he realized that Emperor Wenqing was looking at Jiang Xianyu.

The song and dance performed by Gong Ling had just ended, and there was a moment of silence in the arena.

After a long time, Emperor Wenqing said: "I heard that you saved Lao Jiu, what's your name?"

"Grassman Jiang Xianyu."

"Jiang Xianyu... which Jiang?"

Jiang Xianyu's eyes sank, he looked up at Emperor Wen Qing, and remained silent.

Emperor Wenqing was taken aback for a moment, he thought he just looked like Jiang Yingyue, but now his eyes look very much like Jiang Weifeng - sharp and sharp, neither humble nor overbearing.

"Ahem..." Emperor Wenqing was about to say something when he covered his lips and coughed.

Empress Shen hurriedly served wolfberry and ginseng tea, but felt a fishy sweetness in her throat, and suddenly vomited a mouthful of black and red blood, and fell on Emperor Wenqing.

"Miss!"

"Mother!"

"Escort! Quickly escort!"

Everyone was shocked, and the guards on the scene drew their swords one after another, and quickly surrounded Emperor Wenqing while vigilant about the surroundings.

Emperor Wenqing coughed violently in shock, but felt a pain in his throat and moist palms.He looked down at the black and red in his palm, and his vision suddenly blurred.

"His Majesty!!!"

The chief eunuch hurried forward to support Emperor Wenqing, broke off the gemstone finger in Emperor Wenqing's hand, took out a pill and stuffed it into Emperor Wenqing's mouth.

"Father!"

All the princes and princesses rushed forward, but were stopped by the guards and could not get close to Emperor Wenqing.

"It's poison! Someone poisoned the father and queen!"

"Send to the Imperial Physician! Quickly pass on to the Imperial Physician!"

The scene was chaotic, Xie Cheng hurriedly pulled Jiang Xianyu to the side, his eyes swept over everyone present.

Li Yi, Prince Rui, Prince Cheng and others surrounded the crowd, watching Emperor Wenqing vomit blood continuously.

Shen Zhui rushed to Queen Shen's side to check her pulse, but found that she had died.

"Mother's queen?! Mother's queen!" The deposed prince knelt in front of Empress Shen and wailed, "Send to the imperial physician! Quickly pass on to the imperial physician!"

The maid beside Empress Shen immediately ran out.

"No one is allowed to leave!" Prince Rui sternly said, "The imperial guards sent people to preach the imperial physician, and everyone else stayed behind! No one is allowed to move the table in front of the queen father and queen mother! Then all the servants in the imperial dining room today will be brought to the hospital. come over!"

Li Yi glanced at Prince Rui, and did not compete with him for the limelight, but knelt on the ground and wiped the blood that Emperor Wenqing vomited from his mouth.

"What's going on?" Jiang Xianyu whispered into Xie Cheng's ear while everyone was not paying attention, "Everything the Empress ate tonight was tested for poison, how could people succeed?"

Xie Cheng looked at the utensils on the empress table, and boldly guessed: "Maybe it's not something for the entrance."

Jiang Xianyu: "Then what should we do? Did that pill work?"

Xie Cheng: "It should work, Empress Shen has died now, but His Majesty is still alive."

Just as he was speaking, Emperor Wen Qing slowly opened his eyes, showing signs of awakening.

"Your Majesty!" the eunuch in charge who embraced Emperor Wenqing wept with joy.

At this moment, a guard with a knife standing beside Emperor Wenqing suddenly raised a knife and stabbed Emperor Wenqing in the heart——