Zhang Chaogui returned to the palace to report to the emperor, and brought the news that the king of Shu, the young son of the king of Shu and the king of Ninghua all died of drinking poisoned wine.

At this time, it was already late at night, but the emperor had not rested, and had been sitting in the Qianqing Palace waiting for news. Listening to Zhang Chaogui's words, he grabbed the armrests of the chair with both hands, straightened up and opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated. After a long time, he let go of his hands, leaned back in the chair, and asked lightly: "King Shu...... What do you have to say on your deathbed?"

Although he had already asked a lot of inside information from the prince of Shu and knew some of the thoughts of this younger brother, he still couldn't understand why the other party had become so terrifying. Could it be that the more than 20 years of separation can really change a person so thoroughly? He is not unkind to the king of Shu, the mother and concubine of the king of Shu died early, and he had nothing to worry about in the capital, and he went to a rich place like Shu to be the king of the vassal and hold the power of a place alone, what is the king of Shu not satisfied with? For the position of the crown prince who does not belong to his son, he can bear to send his brother's only son to a dead end, is his heart made of iron and stone?

The emperor didn't know, is the royal family cursed? In the last years of the first emperor, the princes seized the heirs, and the troubles caused by them have not been completely eliminated, and he has been in power for decades, and he has asked himself that his treatment of the clan is not thin, why are there still so many brothers and nephews who are not greedy enough to poison his only heir? The attraction of the imperial throne is so great that it can make them give up their leisurely and prosperous lives and risk their lives for an illusory purpose?!

Or is it because of his generosity and benevolence that they misunderstand that they have a chance to take advantage of it, and even if they make a big mistake, they will not be severely punished? So will he be able to stop all the villains with bad intentions by giving three cups of poisoned wine in succession tonight?

Zhang Chaogui didn't know what the emperor was thinking under his calm face, he just reported what happened tonight one by one, whether it was the king of Ninghua, the king of Shu or the young son of the king of Shu, before and after they received the decree, when they drank poisonous wine, every word they said, everything they did, as well as the details of their collection of corpses after death, as well as the words and deeds of Princess Ninghua, all of them were not missed.

The emperor listened calmly, and learned that the king of Shu had personally poured poisonous wine on his young son, and couldn't help but be slightly moved: "He is ruthless." "But what can you do if you don't give up? The emperor has already given poisoned wine, and it is impossible for the young son of the king of Shu to escape. With his father pouring the poisonous wine with his own hands, he could die faster and suffer less crimes. The king of Shu has always loved this young son, and he still does so until his death.

The emperor asked Zhang Chaogui again: "What do you think...... What did the King of Shu mean by the words he asked the prince before he died?"

Zhang Chaogui lowered his head and replied: "The slave doesn't know, but before his death, His Royal Highness the King of Shu seemed to be very calm and calm, and he didn't forget to remind the prince that he should remember the four o'clock sacrifice of Liu Taimei." ”

The emperor smiled faintly and muttered in a low voice, "At this time, he remembers the bearing that he should have as a prince." I sighed in my heart, thinking that the king of Shu was probably not resentful of the prince, but his future was at the end of his life, and he was dying, and it was a blessing to have a son who escaped safely, so the blood line was never broken. It's just a matter of becoming a king and losing a king, and the king of Shu has experienced the change of seizing the heir, so he won't fail to understand this truth.

The emperor put the matter aside and looked at Zhang Chaogui: "How is the Zongren Mansion?"

Zhang Chaogui said again: "The Zongren Order is not in the Zongren Mansion. However, the slave took the Imperial Forest Army to the Zongren Mansion to do this important thing, and the Zongren Mansion was guarded at night, so I am afraid that the news has already spread. In addition, when he left the Ninghua Wangfu and went to the Zongren Mansion, he once met the former Guangchang King and the current Zhenguo general Zhao Zhuang in the front yard of the Ninghua Wangfu. Zhao Zhu did not come forward to say hello, but hid behind the pillars to peek at him, his face was as white as a dead man, sweating profusely, and his hand on crutches kept trembling, as if he would fall to the ground at any moment. Presumably, he already knew the news of his brother's refuge at that time, but he didn't have the courage to come forward to meet Zhang Chaogui. He was not mentioned in the holy decree, and Zhang Chaogui didn't bother to pay attention to it. Zhao Zhuang is already destined to have no future, Zhang Chaogui, as the emperor's cronies, why waste his time?

After listening to Zhang Chaogui's reply, the emperor remembered that King Ninghua had a younger brother. For Zhao Zhu, he had the impression that he was a gentleman, except that he was used by his brother to marry, he had no value, so he didn't plan to do anything with him. It's just that King Ninghua's plan, he must be aware of it, and he is considered an accomplice, and he can't go unpunished if he is guilty.

The emperor instructed Zhang Chaogui: "Tomorrow I will send a decree to reprimand the general of Zhenguo, Zhao Zhu, for the crime of not reporting it, and the title will be reduced by two levels, and he will be ordered to recuperate and study in the Zongren Mansion, and order the Zongren to be strictly guarded." ”

Zhang Chaogui should have received the order.

Because of the unauthorized entry into the capital without an edict, Zhao Zhuang has lost the title of the king of the county and was demoted to the general of Zhenguo, and now he is demoted by two levels, he is the general of Fengguo, and his own nephew, the eldest son of the former Ninghua Wang, is the same title, presumably the treatment will not be different. The emperor did not rush to kill them all, it was already for the sake of King Jin, and at the same time, there was also a reason why Zhao Zhuan was not very involved in his brother's plan. But the subordinate officials of the Ninghua Palace, as well as the staff and dead soldiers of the Ninghua King, would not have such good luck. The emperor even gave the king of Ninghua and the father and son of the king of Shu who were guilty of the same crime gave poisoned wine, how could he spare their lives?

As for the former Jin king's side concubine Liang who was far away in Ninghua, she still had sons and grandsons to support, and in addition to being deprived of the title and treatment of the side concubine, she did not suffer any major crimes. It won't be long before she will return to the capital with the concubines and concubines of her two sons, and spend the rest of her life in the imperial mansion of her youngest son or grandson, surrounded and monitored by the imperial servants.

The news of the death of the three clans spread in the capital within two days. Although on the surface, they all died of sudden illness, but in fact, everyone understands what is going on. The father and son of the King of Shu are people who have been imprisoned for a long time, and others don't care why they died. Anyway, with the mistakes made by the King of Shu and his wife, the King of Shu should have died a long time ago, that is, the young son of the King of Shu may have died unjustly. After all, he was still young at the beginning, but he was affected by his parents. But if he has such parents, he will die when he dies. What everyone is more interested in is, what did King Ninghua do?

Princess Ninghua was numb and low-key in doing her husband's funeral, and it seemed that her actions were not restricted. But she only gave her husband a three-day pause, and then hurriedly went out of the funeral, neither set up a mourning hall for relatives and friends to worship, but also the cemetery was very simple, that is, the specifications of ordinary clan children. People in the clan who had a relationship with King Jin in the past came to ask her what was going on, but she kept silent. There were people who had a good relationship with King Ninghua, and even had a certain tacit understanding, who came to test her tone and said some unkind words about the emperor, but she scolded her and drove her out on the spot.

She felt from the bottom of her heart that if it weren't for these people who instigated and supported her husband, her husband would have just thought about it at most, but never dared to do anything rebellious, then he would not have died, and she and her sons would not have been affected. What do these people want to do now? Could it be that they are going to bury her and the children's lives together, so they are satisfied? If they have the ability, why don't they go to the Jinluan Palace by themselves? Anyway, she will never do stupid things again. The emperor is vastly towards her mother and son, and she is only grateful in her heart, and there will be no resentment!

Princess Ninghua has such an attitude, and others can only give up. Those who knew the idea stopped some things that should not be done, cleaned up the aftermath, honestly pretended to be sick, or hid in the Zhuangzi under the pretext of worshipping the Buddha. Those who don't know also feel that King Ninghua probably deserves it, otherwise his princess would not have reacted in this way. In that case, why bother digging into it? The emperor probably didn't want the scandal in the clan to spread, right?

In such an atmosphere of public opinion, the news of the death of an old lady in Cining Palace did not cause any waves at all. Not to mention that the old lady was from a low background, her position was not high, and she had no children or daughters, just at her age, it was normal for her to die, and the palace calmly dealt with her funeral, so why should outsiders say more?

Only Zhao Mo told Qin Hanzhen in private: "Concubine Hui committed suicide." Only the queen mother, the emperor, the crown prince, and the crown princess knew about her in the palace, and there was no rumor, and she wanted to interrogate her strictly to find out which inside line King Ninghua and King Shu had in the palace, but she didn't expect her to hang herself without saying a word. In fact, she didn't do anything, if it wasn't for King Ninghua who detained her family and used it as a threat, she wouldn't have been involved in this matter. Since she got the poison, she has been frightened and uneasy, and she has been sick, staying in the small Buddha hall all day and reciting scriptures. Now that she thinks about it, I'm afraid she is uneasy in her heart, and she is also hesitating whether to do it, right? But before she could make a decision, King Ninghua was guilty. If she hadn't been afraid of death, the Queen Mother and the Emperor might not have taken her life. ”

Qin Hanzhen couldn't help but sigh for this old lady: "She is also unlucky." He also asked: "Is the inner line in the palace broken by the clue?"

Zhao Mo said: "The Queen Mother ordered someone to take down the people who were waiting around the little county lord, and sent another palace person to take care of her. Who knew that the nurse and the girl had hidden poison on their bodies in advance, and the palace people were defenseless for a while, so they found a gap and committed suicide by taking poison. What happened on the day the little county lord fell and injured himself, I'm afraid no one knows. The emperor has already sent people to Ninghua Wang's Zhuangzi in Suning, one time to capture the dead soldiers of the Shu Palace, the other is to rescue the Lu family, and from the mouth of the Lu family who entered the palace on the day of the palace banquet, ask what happened that day. ”

In addition, Zongren Ling's side also found out that the person in the Zongren's mansion who secretly delivered the news for the Shu King's family was a guard who was responsible for guarding the courtyard and a servant woman who was responsible for delivering food and water. Zongren ordered a letter asking the emperor to spare him for negligence, and he also dedicated the names of the two sinners. The emperor only detained him for a year, and did not pursue it more, which can be regarded as appeasing the clan. As for those two sinners, they will not be spared.

In this turmoil, the only one who escaped the catastrophe was the prince of Shu.

Qin Hanzhen couldn't help but ask Zhao Mo: "What happened to the prince of Shu? He confessed his biological father and younger brother, and he escaped the catastrophe, so what will happen in the future?"