8 When Xue Rui learned that the emperor was sick, his first thought was to inform Xue Lingnan, but he hurried back to the house, but the steward of the front yard told him that Xiangye had just gone out. When I asked where I went, I couldn't answer.

He could only hold back his urgency and wait at home. At noon, the sun rose for a while and then hid in the clouds, and in the afternoon, a sudden rain came, and the temperature plummeted.

Baode trotted to the bottom of the corridor with an umbrella, exhaled a few breaths of heating into his palm, tightened his collar, and entered the house without lifting the curtain, and reported outside the door: "Childe, the little one saw Xiangye's sedan chair returning home." ”

Xue Rui, who was leaning on the pillow and closing his eyes, sat up all of a sudden, put on his boots and walked out, Baode rolled up the curtains, looked at the thin clothes on his body, and hurriedly stopped: "My lord, don't you dare to go out like this, you will die of cold people outside." ”

"Umbrella." Xue Rui snatched the umbrella in his hand and strode into the rain, Baode was so anxious that he jumped to his feet, didn't care about the mud on his shoes, got into the house and hugged his thick clothes and went to chase him

Xue Rui found the Dumei Hall, and before he reached the door, he was stopped by the servants in the corridor: "Xiangye just rested, and ordered no one to trespass, you can come back later." "I have something to do, get out of the way." "The eldest prince can't."

Xue Rui pushed the person away, and came to the door in three steps and two steps, "Grandfather, the matter is urgent." ”

Xue Lingnan didn't sleep at all, he heard the movement outside just now, his thoughts were disturbed, he frowned, and said coldly: "Come in." ”

Xue Rui pushed the door and entered, and saw Xue Lingnan sitting at the tea table dressed neatly, and he actually came here to meditate as soon as he returned home. I don't know what troubles I encountered when I went out.

"How reckless, how many times has the old man taught you, you can't panic when the sky falls." Xue Lingnan swept over Xue Rui's wet clothes dissatisfiedly.

Xue Rui didn't listen to the training honestly this time, closed the door, approached and lowered his voice: "My grandson got the news, the emperor was bedridden yesterday, and now the queen is in control of the palace, but he has only announced the big point." ”

Xue Lingnan's wrinkled eyelids trembled, but he didn't show the slightest panic, and looked up at him. asked, "Can you guess who the old man went to see just now?" ”

Xue Rui was puzzled. Just as he was about to think about it, he heard Xue Lingnan sneer: "It's Uncle Zhongyong, he privately told the old man that if the saint doesn't get better after three days." The big mention will follow the secret order. It was proclaimed that the king of Ning would supervise the country. ”

Xue Rui was shocked. It couldn't be worse. The emperor has always been critically ill, and the first candidate for the prison country is the crown prince, although Emperor Zhaoqing did not establish a prince. But such a will is tantamount to announcing that King Ning is the future crown prince and the next king.

"The so-called King Ning is in charge of the country, are you sure that it is the order of the Holy One?" He had doubts in his heart that Emperor Zhaoqing had always favored King Ning, but he had always refused to let go of his mouth on the matter of canonizing the crown prince. Now that Emperor Zhaoqing has just fallen ill, the big mention reveals the will of King Ning to supervise the country, which is a bit unusual no matter how you look at it.

"There will be no fake," Xue Lingnan's expression was gloomy, "Although Zhu Muzhao is a traitor, his loyalty to the Holy Lord is unquestionable, anyone can falsely pass on the Holy Decree, only he can't." What's more, not only Si Tianjian is involved in this matter, but Yin Xiang and Yasukuni Gong have a part, and the three of them join forces, even if King Ning is a puddle of mud, he can support the wall. ”

"At this point, the queen finally can't sit still." Once King Ning is in power, the first thing to be threatened is the status of Empress Rui, and how could Concubine Yin Shu, King Ning's biological mother, be willing to succumb to her.

Xue Rui said: "Then Uncle Zhong Yong came to you to discuss, do you want to join forces with your Xue family?" ”

Xue Lingnan snorted coldly: "Among the princes, only King Jing can compete with King Ning, among the ministers, only the old man can compete with Yin Tianhou, if the queen wants to prevent King Ning from taking power, the only way to abandon the previous suspicion and ally with my Xue family." In order to ask me to intervene in King Ning's prison country, Ruiang did not hesitate to verbally agree with me that when Shengshang's condition improved, the queen mother would come forward to support King Jing as the crown prince. ”

"Grandfather, no," Xue Rui frowned, "The Holy Lord has been suspicious of you before, and if you come forward to oppose the Holy Decree at this time, I am afraid that the day the Holy Lord will improve will be the time of great disaster for my Xue family." ”

"You don't need to say it, I'm not confused to that point," Xue Lingnan said: "Ruiang, this old horseman's good calculation, vainly wants to pull the old man to use him as a gunman, and he thinks that I will take the bait when he draws a big pie, and he doesn't want to think about it, if my Xue family wants to help King Jing fight for the throne, why should I form an alliance with them." ”

Xue Rui's mind moved, and he asked tentatively, "You mean?" ”

Xue Lingnan glanced at him meaningfully, and said, "You don't think that King Xiang is an idle and incompetent person like everyone in the world. ”

Xue Rui had a flash of lightning in his mind for a moment, and he almost grasped the point, but he was firmly attracted by Xue Lingnan's next words.

"It's all old things, so it's okay to tell you in private. Today's Shengshang and Xiang Wang are the same mother's compatriots, both are bred by the Empress Dowager Renjing, the Holy Shang is two years older, but not as smart as the King of Xiang since childhood, the first emperor's favorite prince is the King of Xiang, and the eldest son of the emperor, the Song Wang, both civil and military, dominates, and the Holy is much more mediocre in comparison. In the later years of the first emperor, the king of Song secretly rebelled, and was given death after being exposed by Ruiang, and then came to the change of Si Tianjian, Zhu Muzhao's son inherited his father's business, and the Zhu family made two big points, and finally the first emperor issued an edict, promulgated by Si Tianjian, and established the present as the crown prince, and then two years, the first emperor died, and the saint succeeded to the throne, and changed the year name Zhaoqing. ”

Xue Lingnan narrated calmly, but Xue Rui heard a few hidden secrets from it. First of all, the emperor and the king of Hunan are both sons-in-law, and they are close in age, one is mediocre and the other is smart, my dynasty is not as good as the previous dynasty, but why is it the mediocre Zhaoqing Emperor who finally won the treasure?

In addition, the two terms of the Zhu family are mentioned, which is unique in the three-hundred-year history of the An Dynasty, is it artificial or a coincidence?

He vaguely felt that this qiē had a lot to do with his biological father Yunhua Yizi's theft of the "Xuannu Liuren Book".

"After the saint ascended the throne, the king of Xiang pleaded several times to leave Beijing to guard the domain, but without permission, he had to hide in the city.

Xue Lingnan concluded: "Don't forget that your little aunt is the mistress of the Xiang Palace, even if the King of Xiang is not for himself, he must also consider the prince, if he helps, it may not be King Ning who has the last laugh." ”

Xue Rui thought in his heart, silently, looked at his face full of vicissitudes of life, and asked in a low voice, "Have you already decided?" ”

decided to take the entire Xue family to participate in this battle for succession and support Liu Tan to seize the throne.

Xue Lingnan's eyes were like torches, and for the first time he showed his fierce ambition in front of him: "King Ning is the crown prince, sooner or later it will be unfavorable to the Xue family, rather than ending up with a broken family in the future, it is better to fight hard, and now it is necessary to fight." ”

The battle for the heir has already quietly begun.

Xue Rui looked at the high-spirited expression of the old man in front of him, but he felt a little strange.

"That's right," Xue Lingnan changed his words, and suddenly asked: "The day before yesterday, Mrs. Weiguo fled the capital with the help of the disaster victims, and there is nothing to do with you, right?" ”

Xue Rui flatly denied: "I haven't seen them since the last time I went back to Beijing." ”

Xue Lingnan was not suspicious, looked at the sudden rain outside the window, and said coldly: "The saint mistakenly believed Zhu Muzhao's slander, forcing the king of Dongjing to have no choice but to rebel, the saint fell ill this time, it can be said that adding fuel to the fire, I am afraid that the king of Dongjing will take advantage of the fire to rob, he has at least 400,000 troops under his command, once the army is mobilized, it will be a vicious battle full of corpses." ”

As he spoke, he stared at Xue Rui: "Do you have a way to secretly get in touch with King Dongjing?" ”

Xue Rui shook his head, Xue Lingnan looked disappointed, pondered for a moment with his eyelids drooped, and then sighed: "Actually, Mrs. Weiguo was able to escape, which is a fortunate thing for our Xue family. ”

Xue Rui was silent.

"I've told you everything I need to say, the old man is tired and needs to rest. Call your second uncle in the evening, and the three of us will think about it in the long run. ”

Xue Rui withdrew and closed the door. Baode probed his brain at the gate of the courtyard, and when he saw him come out, he hurriedly ran forward with a ball of thick clothes.

"Childe, look at your face is white from the cold, put it on quickly."

Xue Rui's cold fingers retracted into the fluffy fur, but the chill in his heart could not subside. From the moment he understood his life experience, he decided to repay his adoptive father's kindness, if the Xue family needed a dragon skill to save the day, he would definitely give up his life to accompany him.

But if Xue Lingnan wants to kill the people who broke his life, the ultimate goal is to seek to usurp the throne, where will he go?

***

On the fifteenth day of the lunar month, because the palace ordered the emperor to be ill, the court meeting was exempted.

On the sixteenth day of the lunar month, Emperor Zhaoqing, who was seriously ill, was in a coma for three days and finally woke up, and immediately summoned several ministers into the palace.

On the seventeenth day of the lunar month, hundreds of civil and military officials were summoned to the palace, and they saw that there was another one under the dragon chair steps on the Tai'an Palace, and when everyone was shocked, King Ning sat down in that position with his head held high, and he came forward to dictate the edict, and Yin Xiangye and Yasukuni Gong came forward to help, informing everyone that the emperor was sick and moved to the palace to recuperate, and from today onwards, King Ning will temporarily supervise the country.

When this order was issued, the ministers in the palace were in an uproar, and they were fiercely opposed by a group of people on the spot, on the grounds that King Ning was not the eldest and not the prince, and his name was not right, and he had no right to take on the big responsibility; There are also people who question the authenticity of this holy decree and clamore to meet the emperor in person; Some radicals took off their official uniforms on the spot, saying that if the emperor refused to retract his order, they would be dismissed.

In this way, Liu Hao's face is definitely not much better, in the past, every time he said that Lichu was the loudest, who would have thought that when he really waited for this day, so many desperate opponents would appear.

In the end, he came forward and suppressed these objections, but Yin Xiang stood aside in an orderly manner, without interference, and had no intention of standing up for King Ning at all. Similarly, Xue Lingnan also stood on the other side dutifully, acting as an audience, no matter how much they made a fuss, he just didn't speak.

An improvisational early dynasty ended unhappily.

Yu Shu stood in an inconspicuous corner, watched the whole process, looked at King Ning sitting on the treasure hall, and secretly exclaimed that it was bad, and at the same time, he became more and more sure of one thing - Yunhua did not lie to him, and if he lost the "Xuannu Liuren Book", he would not be able to establish a prince.

Otherwise, Emperor Zhaoqing really wanted King Ning to be the crown prince, why didn't he simply take this opportunity to set up the East Palace, but he didn't justly decree that King Ning would supervise the country? (To be continued......)