On the eighth day of June in the twelfth year of Zhaohong, the son of Dayue became ill due to internal and external troubles, and was frightened by a fire in the palace, and died in the harem at the age of forty-eight, nicknamed 'Ling'.

Empress Lingdi died early, did not give birth to a son-in-law, and left an edict in the emperor's eldest son, Song Ling; The eldest son of the emperor was young and difficult to deal with political affairs, and the special prime minister Xiao Chuyang was appointed as the emperor's teacher to assist the new monarch; In order to prevent Chang'an from losing, Xiao Chuyang ordered the king to summon Xu You, the king of Su, to enter the king of Chang'an.

In the middle of summer in June, the news came out at an alarming speed, and the whole world was thrown into chaos.

First of all, the Dayue court, on the day of the new monarch's accession to the throne, sent an edict to the four kings of the east. The four kings of the east impeached Song Ji for the four major crimes, and asked Song Ji to abdicate and make way for Xian, and now the new monarch has succeeded to the throne, and the four kings have no name for the teacher, so they are naturally forced to quit their troops and bow down to the new monarch.

At the same time, changes also occurred in northern Xinjiang, and Guo Xianzhong, the commander of the Guanzhong Army, got the news as soon as he got the news, first led his troops back to Guanzhong, and returned to his original position after less than half a day, continuing to guard the north of the Yellow River.

Wang Chenghai, the commander of the Liaoxi Army, withdrew his troops from Youzhou and Yunzhou without informing the imperial court, and retreated to the Qingzhou line south of the Yellow River, and half of his troops went south to aid the four kings.

This move directly sent the entire Youzhou to the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the court angrily denounced Wang Chenghai as a traitor, and Wang Chenghai directly scolded Xiao Chuyang as a 'traitor' and colluded with King Su to seek the country.

The Jiang clan of the Northern Qi Dynasty naturally felt that 'God helped me', and quickly sent troops to occupy Youzhou, while attacking Dayue, he did not forget to express his support for the four kings of the east, and the monarch of Northern Qi also issued a special edict to reprimand King Su Xu for being disloyal and unjust, 'coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes', and doubting the cause of the death of the Son of Heaven Song Ji, anyway, he wanted to split the east and west of Dayue.

And the four Song vassal kings in the east were naturally furious when they heard the news.

In mid-June, Luzhou.

Luzhou as the eastern three kings of the soldiers and horses gathered place, half a year of war, has made the whole Luzhou has become a huge military camp, Chaohu Lake is full of ships full of grain, grass and ordnance, inside and outside the city armor like a cloud, every moment there are soldiers and horses from all over the gathering of horses, and then set off to the front line of Chudi.

On the island in the center of Chaohu Lake, there is a summer manor, and at this time, the manor is heavily guarded inside and outside, and officers and soldiers wearing the armor of various vassal kings are guarding the main roads everywhere.

The door of the manor's council hall was closed, and the four of them were seated in it, led by Song Shaoying, the king of Wei.

Song Shaoying is over forty years old, and he alone controls a country in South Vietnam, with the highest military strength and very high prestige, and his personal relationship with King Wu is also very good, and the current Four Kings Alliance is also in the lead.

To the left and right of Song Shaoying, the king of Wei, are Song Siming, the king of Wu, Song Ding'an, the king of Yu, and Song Zhengping, the king of Chu.

Song Siming, the king of Wu, wanted to destroy Song Ji because of new hatred and old grudges, but he pulled Song Ji off the horse to support King Wei as the new king, which was the Song family brothers fighting for family property; Now in this situation, it is a person with a foreign surname who came to the house to seek to seize the family property, Song Siming was naturally angry in his heart, and slapped the table and said angrily:

“…… Xu You's child is a wolf's ambition. What 'accumulated hard work became sick and died in the harem', Xu Buling just returned to Chang'an, Song Ji died, where is there such a coincidence? It must have been Xu Buling's rebellion and murder of Song Ji ......"

The other three kings all had similar thoughts, but it was useless to know. The Xiliang army has occupied Chang'an, and the emperor's eldest son succeeds to the throne in accordance with the etiquette law, no matter how ruthless they scold without evidence, it is impossible for King Su to retreat with guilt, and it is impossible for the new monarch to give up the throne.

Song Shaoying, the king of Wei, raised his hand: "The saint is in good health, and it is impossible for him to die suddenly." A few days ago, Wang Chenghai, the governor of the Liaoxi Metropolitan Protectorate, sent me a secret letter. said that the saint had expected that the Xu family would plot against him, and gave him a secret edict, if there is a change in the pass, he can abandon the two states of Youyun and lead the troops south to assist the king......"

When Song Zhengping, the king of Chu, heard this, he frowned:

"Song Shaoying, it's the Song family behind closed doors, don't talk nonsense here. Song Ji is narrow-minded and regards the throne as more important than his own life, how can he issue a secret edict and let Wang Chenghai assist you as the new king? ”

Song Shaoying was not surprised at all by King Chu's words. After all, if this is true, then he will become the inheritor of Dayue's orthodoxy, and directly cut off Song Zhengping's idea of competing for reunification.

Song Ji gave Wang Chenghai a secret edict in advance, and it was impossible to directly abolish himself and specify Song Shaoying as the new monarch. The secret edict only said that there were changes in the pass, and the land of clouds could be abandoned to assist King Wei, leaving a way for himself to retreat.

In this way, if Xu Buling directly rebelled, he would raise troops to attack Guanzhong and kill Song Ji. Then the king of Wei naturally became the heir of orthodoxy, and he could use secret edicts to order all princes to stand on their own and continue the Song dynasty.

But Xu Buling did not dare to oppose directly, but chose to overhead Song Ji to 'coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes', and the King of Wei got the secret edict and took the Liaoxi Army, so he would naturally counterattack the middle way. After destroying the Xu family, in case the situation changes, with Song Ji's Yu Wei and the identity of the emperor, there is still a chance to turn the tables and get back the imperial power.

However, Xu Buling directly slaughtered Song Ji, and then set up a new monarch to order the princes, the new monarch was only nine years old and had no foundation, and it was obviously impossible for Song Ji to turn the tables.

After seeing Song Ji's death, the dead soldier C, who was waiting in the dark, hurriedly brought the edict and the jade seal of the country to the king of Wei. It's a pity that this edict was intercepted by Xu Buling.

Therefore, Song Shaoying, the king of Wei, only had an ambiguous secret edict in his hand, although it did not affect his power, but if it was taken out in front of other vassal kings, it would definitely be ripped off.

In order to prevent the situation from being calmed down, other vassal kings were running over to grab the imperial throne, Song Shaoying naturally said seriously:

"Since the door is closed, everyone is brothers with the same surname, and they don't say those vain words.

Although the Holy Lord said that there was something wrong with the great joy of ruling the country, everyone knew that if it were not for our fear of the Holy Lord, there was no need to impeach the Holy Lord and force him to abdicate.

It is true that the saint wants to cut the feudal domain and monopolize the power, but from the beginning to the end, he has always thought about the Song family's thousand-autumn foundation, don't you deny this? ”

Song Zhengping, the king of Chu, hesitated and did not speak, while the two kings of Wu and Yu nodded.

Although Song Ji provoked the anger of the heavens and offended everyone, the only reason why he ended up now was only because he exposed the intention of cutting the feudal domain, which made all the kings feel cold.

But from the perspective of the Song family, Song Ji really did nothing wrong, if he didn't cut them, sooner or later he would raise troops to seize the emperor's dominance, just like this time; It may be that after one of them inherits the unification, he will not even overturn the decree set by Song Ji, but will continue to move forward along the road of Song Ji.

Song Shaoying saw that the kings had no objections, and continued:

"The saint may be too domineering, but he is by no means a faint monarch, but the layout has gone wrong, one wrong step and one wrong step, and in the end he has no power to return to the sky; With the character of the saint, he must regard the foundation of the Song clan as more important than the imperial lineage, and it is reasonable to be able to issue a secret edict to let me restore the Song clan; If it weren't for this, Wang Chenghai would have governed the Liaoxi Protectorate on behalf of the Son of Heaven, and he would be a diehard loyalist of the saints, and without the consent of the saints, he would definitely listen to the order of the emperor's eldest son, how could he come to me with the infamy of being a 'traitor'? ”

These words are reasonable, and the other two kings already supported the king of Wei, so they naturally nodded. Song Zhengping, the king of Chu, did not believe it:

"The king of the Eastern Fourth Domain, you are in the south, and Song Ji has no friendship with you, why should you let Wang Chenghai assist you? Could it be that none of us can enter the eyes of the saints? ”

Song Shaoying was silent, shook her head and sighed:

"It's a bit hurtful, but it's true. The saint has always looked at the top, and he looks down on the four of us at all, and he can issue a secret edict to let me restore the Song family, not that I am more brilliant, but simply a tall one among the short people. ”

“……”

Song Zhengping, the king of Chu, slapped the table, but he didn't speak.

Song Siming, King of Wu, and King Wei wore a pair of pants, shook their heads at this time, and said: "Zhengping, you have an army of more than 100,000 under your command, sitting on Mashankou, Nanyang, Xiangyang and other important military places, adding up to guard the promise and not ordering for less than a day, Qin Jing was jokingly called 'Qin Ran Run' by the imperial court, how can you let the saint hand over the important task of recovering the Song clan to you?" ”

Song Zhengping instantly became angry when he heard this, and said angrily: "Don't you know how this king fights?" If you can hold on, will you be defeated and retreated? I fought in front of you, and you stood by and watched from behind, and afterwards you had the face to say that this king did not contribute? ”

Song Shaoying raised her hand: "Don't make any noise." In any case, the surname cannot be changed in this world, and the top priority now is to expel the Xu family. King Su occupied the Guanzhong Narrow Son of Heaven to order the princes, and the forces in Dayue were leaderless, so they could only listen to the orders of the new monarch. From my point of view, now I can only obey the secret edict of the Holy Lord, specifying the new monarch as the puppet emperor of the Xu family, and I will inherit the unification and order all the princes to crusade against the Xu family. ”

Song Zhengping is naturally unhappy about this:

"Now it should be a gathering of soldiers and horses, and enter the side of King Qingjun in the customs, how can there be a direct self-reliance?"

Song Shaoying did not receive Song Ji's edict on the Zen position, and now he should indeed be on the side of King Qinqingjun, but under the banner of 'King Qinwang Qingjun', he really knocked down the pass, and he let his nephew take the Zen position to bully the young with the elders.

"The Holy Secret Edict is like this, and I am also thinking about the overall situation, the 'Qing Monarch's side' is to recognize the new monarchy, which is helping the Xu family. If you have to enter the king of Chang'anqin, you can bring the troops over yourself. ”

"You ......"

Song Zhengping, the king of Chu, looked at each other for a moment, after all, he couldn't compete with the king of the three-way domain, and finally just snorted, got up and brushed his sleeves away......