Linque

"Does it hurt?"

In Mingcheng Hall, Ling Ye carefully and gently applied a cold handkerchief to Chu Heng's bruised knee, and he never let go of his frowning eyebrows.

Chu Heng shook his head, pressed the wound on his face, put the other hand on Ling Ye's eyebrows, gently smoothed those furrowed arcs, and said with a smile: "I'm not angry anymore, is your majesty still frowning?" ?”

Ling Ye looked up at him, but said nothing.The corners of Chu Heng's lips were slightly curved, and it looked like he was smiling at first glance, but his eyebrows and eyes were not lively - he was not angry, but gave up.

This kind of kinship is superficial, and it was futile to force expectations in the past.

Chu Heng smiled and said again: "I just came back from Changzhou. I looked at the sky and the clouds along the way. Now that I'm finally here, don't you laugh?"

Ling Ye was silent for a while, sighed lightly, and smiled slightly as he said.

"That's about the same." Chu Heng said with satisfaction, his eyes gradually turned red as he watched.

——Before giving up, there will still be sadness.

Ling Ye reached out and hugged Chu Heng, letting him lean on his shoulder, "This is the last time."

Chu Heng nodded: "Yeah." A tear fell silently and slid down his cheek into the neckline. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the sadness was nowhere to be found.

This page is opened, it's all over.

He didn't let His Majesty beat Zhong Pinghou, because he didn't want to embarrass Chu Xin and Chu Yan.On the one hand, there is a father who has the gift of giving birth, and on the other hand, an elder brother who is connected by blood. How can there be so many black and white in the world? Both siblings are good children who know kindness and love, and it is difficult for them to completely abandon either side. difficult.

All kinds of indifference and censure at Zhong Pinghou in the past should be repaid for this vain father-son relationship.

Last time.

He will do whatever he wants in the future, and he will not wrong himself again.

……

Everything in the palace was meticulous, and two days later, the red and swollen fingerprints on Chu Heng's side face had faded away, and the pain between his knees had almost disappeared.

The weather in the imperial capital has been bad these days. Even if it doesn't rain, it is always covered with dark clouds, making it difficult to see a clear sky and sunshine.

Chu Heng put away his umbrella and stepped into the Hall of Respect and Sincerity.

Ling Ye was watching the urgent secret report from the Shadow Guard from Nanshan.

"What happened to Queen Mother Zhong?" It was only after returning to the imperial capital that Chu Heng learned from Ling Ye that the Queen Mother was stabbed to death in Nanshan Buddhist Temple.

This is a game that cannot go wrong. If you are not careful, the dirty water will get on the emperor.The balance has been broken, and it is imperative to raise troops to fight, but King Jing must not be allowed to use the Queen Mother's death as a raft.Otherwise, the meticulous writing of history books in the future will inevitably leave a suspicion of "killing the mother-in-law" to Emperor Xuanxi.

The specious slander is the most difficult to clear up, Chu Heng does not want his majesty to suffer the criticism and rumors of the later generations for nothing because of the chaos and thieves.

"Su Lang and your junior brother Xinghui have already arrived at Nanshan, and the news has not yet spread, but King Jing has already got the news, and they must be rushing to Nanshan." Ling Ye folded the secret report and said calmly, "Just Let him go, he won't see the Queen Mother's body anyway."

When Chu Heng heard the words, he still had some hidden worries: "Although the Empress Dowager went to the Buddha in modest clothes and her itinerary was secret, Nanshan Buddhist Temple did not dare to neglect. I heard that the inner temple was under martial law on the day of her visit, and outside men were not allowed to enter. To make Nanshan do this, it has to be done. It must be the royal family members. Therefore, although many people have not seen the queen mother, they have guessed the distinguished guest. If King Jing starts from this point and leads the public to question..."

Ling Ye shook his head and said, "Su Lang has a message that they met Princess Qinghe at the foot of Nanshan Mountain."

"What?" Chu Heng frowned.

Princess Qinghe is the beloved daughter of the late emperor and imperial concubine Huiyuan. She was given a marriage by Empress Dowager Zhong back then and married to the Lianyan Jiang family in Wanzhou. She was once scorned by the Jiang family.It wasn't until last year that the emperor sent someone to come forward, and the eldest princess was able to retire from her son-in-law and return to the imperial capital.

"Yeah." Ling Ye said, "The last time Qinghe came to see Jing Xing in the palace, she told me that she was going to visit Shiyi privately, but she actually went to Nanshan secretly."

When Ling Ye said this, his expression was indifferent, showing no emotion.Chu Heng was also a little dazed for a while.Princess Qinghe's life experience is complicated. Her mother's real identity is the orphan of the Erfei Medicine Sect. In terms of blood relationship, the princess should be the niece of Mingyuan's junior master.With this relationship, Chu Heng is very concerned about her and Jing Xing.

"Why did she go to Nanshan?"

"Yes." Ling Ye handed over the secret report, "The queen mother's marriage almost ruined Qinghe's life. She has a stiff relationship with the queen mother. How could she come to Nanshan for no reason? And she dared not say anything, let alone let her go. I know."

Ling Ye paused for a moment, and then said: "The shadow guards have checked the scene where the Queen Mother was assassinated, and none of the imperial guards on duty showed any signs of fighting or resisting, and they didn't even show signs of alertness. The assassins instantly restrained them all. "

Chu Heng's eyebrows twitched. The guards of the imperial army who accompanied him were not simple people. To be able to do this, the assassin must have a lot of background.

Ling Ye came to a conclusion with a calm expression, and said firmly: "So Qinghe went to Nanshan, not to see the queen mother, she went to see Yan Zhefei, the master of Qianyong realm."

In other words, seeing her mother, the imperial concubine Huiyuan who "resurrected from the dead".

It was not long ago that Ling Ye knew the true identity of this "Lord of Qianyong Realm".

Palace history records that the imperial concubine passed away one year before the late emperor's death, and the cause of death was "heart palpitations".Compared with poisoning the late emperor for 14 years in incognito, what is more legendary now is her "resurrection from the dead".However, she is the daughter of the suzerain of the Erfei Medicine Sect, and it is not impossible for her to fake her death back then because she has all the true biography of the witch doctor.

30 years ago, under the conspiracy of Yanxi Zhong, Dingkang Zhou, and Cangwu Fang, the Erfei Medicine Sect was wiped out.This paper killing order was nodded by the first emperor.

In the year when the noble concubine "died" in the palace, the first emperor knew everything about her, and also knew that she entered the palace to kill himself.When the matter was revealed, the imperial concubine committed suicide without hesitation.At that time, the accumulated poison had made the late emperor's health very bad.After the death of the noble concubine, except for the emperor's shadow guard who handled it, all those who knew her were executed in secret. Even the Empress Dowager Zhong, who was the empress at that time, did not know about the secrets of the palace.After the death of the noble concubine, she was granted the posthumous title of "Hui Yuan" and buried in the imperial mausoleum.

Before the late emperor died, he told Ling Ye about these grievances and the past, and destroyed Er Fei Medicine Sect's file for the second time.How did the noble concubine enter the palace incognito, and who helped her, none of these former emperors deliberately traced it out—whether it was a regicide or anything else, as soon as the dust was buried, that was the end of it.

Two or three Er'er Fei orphans of the same clan as other noble concubines, as long as they don't cause trouble, they don't know about it.

However, today's Yan Zhefei obviously doesn't think so.

The collapse of the Er Fei Medicine Sect was certainly the decree of the first emperor, but the instigators were the three greedy and ruthless families of Zhong, Fang and Zhou.

The Yanxi Zhong family had already been purged five years ago after the change of the Qi Palace, and now it is no longer a climate.But the Dingkang Zhou family and the Cangwu Fang family are still doing well, especially Fang Hongzhen, who stepped on the bones of the Medicine Sect and achieved his Mahayana realm.For the three evil medicines named "Su Hui", they wiped out the whole family of Er Fei, and every wronged soul is a blood debt.

These three families are now entangled with King Jing. Since they are rebelling against each other, Yan Zhefei doesn't want it to be a small incident. The iron coupons are not enough to protect them, so they will bleed and slaughter - return to themselves what they gave to the Erfei Medicine Sect 30 years ago.

As for how many innocent people will die in the flames of war, Yan Zhefei doesn't care.

The Empress Dowager Zhong is the balance point between the emperor and King Jing. Yan Zhefei broke this balance and made the death of the Empress Dowager the trigger for the war.She doesn't care who will occupy the title of Dayi.

As long as the emperor has a greater chance of winning than King Jing in the end, that's enough.

These key points are not difficult to figure out in the eyes of insiders.Chu Heng scanned the shadow guard's secret report. Yan Zhefei's actions were outside the chessboard, and he would not consider how much the suspicion of "harming his aunt" would affect the emperor's reputation.

Ling Ye didn't take a mere respectful king as his goal, what really made him care about were those aristocratic families that were hidden in the dark and could not be lost.But now, the queen mother died, the chessboard was disrupted, and it was impossible to cast a long line to catch big fish without bloodshed.

Ling Ye is very annoyed now, when he mentions Yan Zhefei, and even Qing and Princess Chang, his tone is indifferent.

He pressed the center of his brows, closed his eyes to suppress the anger in his heart, fell silent for a moment, and said in a slow tone: "Qinghe went to Nanshan this time, and the journey was difficult, but fortunately, he was safe in the end. It was not a waste of time." , Good or bad, I met the imperial concubine. I don’t know where she learned about the hardships she has experienced in Wanzhou these years, but the mother concubine has 'resurrected from the dead', and it is human nature for her to want to meet."

The queen mother is dead, and she will never come back to life.No one knows, and there is not even any evidence to prove that Yan Zhefei, the master of Qianyong Realm, killed her.Once this matter spreads, at the lightest level, the emperor will be charged with failing to take good care of his aunt's safety and his duty as a son.Best of course is to let this never happen.

Ling Ye said: "When King Jing arrives at Nanshan, let Su Lang release the news to the outside world. It is Princess Qing and the eldest princess who are paying homage to the Buddha. With her covering up, Nanshan is under martial law and the inner temple is closed. All these make sense. King Jing won't see you." The empress dowager's corpse, this trip is for nothing. Taking advantage of the time when he is going to the funeral, it happens to adjust the deployment to Wanzhou and Changzhou."

Ling Ye spread out the map of Kyushu, and his eyes fell on Dayin's fertile land.

Yunzhou, Changzhou, Wanzhou.

All along, King Jing was able to plot rebellion, relying on nothing more than three things——

The first is the chaos in the three states, especially Changzhou itself.The aristocratic families are intertwined and powerful, leading to the imperial court at the top and reaching the earth at the bottom.The emperor pushed the imperial examination to stop and cut off their flesh, especially some families who had been suppressed by the emperor in the past two years, such as the Tanchuan Yan family, were even more dissatisfied.

The second is Cangwu Martial Venerable Fang Hongzhen. With this Mahayana realm, King Jing can do anything in private.Fang Hongzhen has great prestige in Yunzhou, just like a stone that anchors the army, reassuring the hearts of many rebels.

The third is the external force borrowed by King Jing, Beidi Thirteen Divisions and Nanyang Zeguo.

"If you don't break, you can't stand. Clean up King Jing and these aristocratic families. It's better to use troops. Only by scraping the bones can heal the poison."

Among them, Changzhou——

"I have to go again." Chu Heng said.