In the fifth year of Taihe, on the afternoon of October, Shen Zheng.

Chang'an, Wannian County, Sixteen Princes' Residences, Yingwang's Mansion.

At dusk, from the palace, you can see the towering eaves of the diligent government affairs building in the Xingqing Palace of "Nannei", and the sunset shines, making the gold bricks and green tiles shine.

The time to prepare for feeding has arrived, and the little eunuch in the palace has also come to ask King Ying when he will eat, but King Ying ordered someone to let the back kitchen make it half a minute later. The little eunuch sang "喀", and was immediately stopped by King Ying.

Li Han paused as if he wanted to think about it, and then turned to order: "The princess likes meat, and ordered the kitchen to prepare some steamed sheep, roasted goose, etc., let the princess eat first......

The little eunuch arched his hand and sang, and after retreating, King Ying and Li Shangyin slowly entered the side hall where Zhang Yijun was located and closed the door.

This house is located on the east side of the courtyard of the second entrance, the eaves on it are hung with the hanging ornaments such as the grass and the jade guard, and there is a carved beast stone fence on both sides of the door. This house is not open on weekdays, except when there are guests who disturb too late, or Zhao Guizhen comes to preach, so that the sun is setting in the west, the curfew is approaching, and King Ying is still unfinished.

"Yi Jun, what do you mean by what you just said?" King Ying's hands hung on both sides, his expression was solemn but anxious, it could be seen that what Zhang Yijun said was something he had never thought of, he didn't expect that just one day later, the "clue" that Zhang Yijun said before would lead to a mutiny......

Li Shangyin's expression was quite stunned, and so far, he knows very little about the inside story. Li Shangyin glanced at Zhang Yijun, he thought that the topic that Zhang Yijun talked about later would have to be avoided by himself, but he found that Zhang Yijun did not have this intention when his eyes met at this moment, which made Li Shangyin stunned but also a little relieved.

Zhang Yijun gathered his mind and briefly summarized the experience of last night that he remembered, but omitted the details about the carved jade pendant for the time being.

Because of Zhang Yijun's conclusion at the beginning, King Ying's complexion calmed down after listening quietly, and he and Li Shangyin both fell into deep thought.

After thinking about it, Li Shangyin recalled the "Tang Liudian" that he had memorized, and nodded lightly and said, "Indeed...... Tang Law said that secretly hiding swords and soldiers, the number is as huge as a huge number, it is a crime complicity and rebellion, and it is a heinous felony, and ordinary people will never take the risk of punishing the three clans to wade into this troubled water, and they will be a fool in the fire. ”

"But there is a certain doubt, why is that culvert connected with the Xuandu Temple?" King Ying looked at Zhang Yijun, and slowly sat on a yellow sandalwood chair on the side of the house, with doubts on his face, "Xuandu Guandao is long and clear, you and I have always had dealings, and they have always been pious and obedient, and they are about to live in a thick place. If it is really a mutiny, the Xuandu Temple is just a Taoist temple in the end, what is the gain? ”

This is indeed a question that Zhang Yijun has not thought clearly, could it be that the Taoist chief does not know about the culvert? Or is the mastermind of the "ghost soldiers" already colluding with the Taoist temple, and secretly promising benefits that are difficult to refuse?

"Dare to ask Your Highness, the Taoist temples in Chang'an have been full of incense recently?" Zhang Yijun suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question.

Li Han seemed to be accustomed to Zhang Yijun's leap in thinking, but after thinking for a while, he replied: "I really don't know recently, after you went to Xichuan, you haven't offered incense for a long time......

"Brother Yijun's meaning is ......" Li Shang thought thoughtfully, as if vaguely guessing the meaning of Zhang Yijun's words, "Xuanduguan has been gradually thinning incense recently, and it is difficult to operate, so he secretly allowed the rebellious party to dig a culvert privately under its foundation, pretending not to know?" ”

Zhang Yijun glanced at Li Shangyin approvingly, and then patiently told King Ying what he saw when he went to the Xuandu Temple first: "Although the Xuandu Temple looked full of pilgrims that day, for the Xuandu Temple, which covers a wide area, the incense offered by such a flow of people is just a drop in the bucket......

"And when he first entered the mountain gate, Chen and Yishan once ridiculed the prince of the Wang family in Wannian County......"

"Wang Yanzhuo ......," King Ying said without thinking.

"Not bad!" Zhang Yijun continued: "What he said at the time was intended to be the dilapidated view of the Xuandu Temple, and it was necessary to raise a son to choose someone to come and offer incense...... Although this statement is a satire of scholars, it also points out that the current view of Xuandu is not as good as in the past. ”

"You say so, a certain recall, in the past, there were peach trees in the view, every spring, the peach blossoms are full of gardens, it is very spectacular, and the flow of incense is one after another?" Li Xiao seemed to resonate with Zhang Yijun's words, with some regret in his tone, "Later, the Taoist priest who planted the peach died, and Qingfeng became the Taoist, but for some reason, the number of pilgrims decreased sharply, and the peach blossoms naturally withered away......."

Li Shangyin interjected and asked, "Qingfeng...... But when did he become a Taoist? ”

"Nine years ago, ......" Yingwang Dao, he has been cultivating since Zongjiao, and he has always been familiar with the personnel changes of the Taoist Temple in Beijing, so he is very sure of this tone, "After that, it was not that the Xuandu Temple was not well managed, but it was the Shi family who took a lot of pilgrims in the past, and I don't know why." ”

Zhang Yijun knows that the Buddha refers to the Buddhist temple, and the Tang Dynasty is the state religion, but at the same time it also obeys the Shi family, so he helped Xuanzang build the Great Ci'en Temple and the towering Big Wild Goose Pagoda during the Zhenguan period of Taizong, which is still standing today, and is located in the Zhongqu of Jinchangfang in Wannian County.

"So, what do you mean, Yijun," Li Han pondered, "In order to revive the past, the Xuandu Temple decided to acquiesce to the rebellious party to dig culverts and plot misdeeds through the Taoist Temple?" ”

Although Zhang Yijun did not confirm it verbally, he nodded slightly, just because to tell the truth, this is just his speculation, but it is not impossible to be one of the reasons.

"The minister doesn't quite understand," Li Shangyin pondered for a while, and then arched his hand to King Ying: "Since the place where the chaotic party colluded has been discovered by Brother Yi Jun, why don't you report it to the government immediately, and even His Royal Highness plays the saint, can't he immediately smash his lair?" ”

"No!"

This time, Zhang Yijun and King Ying spoke almost in unison, which made Li Shangyin frightened.

"So-and-so is still alive, that's the reason!" Zhang Yijun carefully explained: "At the moment, things are still unclear, and it is not appropriate to act rashly. Fortunately, I didn't have anything on me at that time to prove that I had anything to do with His Highness, otherwise it would have been a bad situation......"

"And ......," added King Ying, "if a certain emperor is played, he will definitely be startled, and if the rebel party covers up the culvert at that time, so that the government has no clues, then the crime of false accusation will have to be borne by Xiao Wang." ”

"But...... If what Brother Yijun said is true, Chang'an will definitely have a catastrophe, and it is in danger! ”

Zhang Yijun looked at Li Shangyin, who was a little at a loss, and shook his head, "The other party should not be ready, otherwise...... At that time, I found out to them that if they were going to do something, in order to ensure that the secret was not leaked, they would also choose to kill people instead of stopping the drug and sending it out of the culvert. ”

After Zhang Yijun's explanation, Li Shangyin suddenly realized, but he also wanted to be frightened. Only then did he realize that the rebellious party called the "ghost soldiers" seemed to be a behemoth, and its actions, including digging culverts, hiding swords and soldiers, burying hidden piles in Xichuan, and plotting chaos in Chang'an, were all in an orderly manner. Even if the culvert was discovered, they seemed to be extremely confident, and they were not afraid of the conspiracy being exposed to stop sending Zhang Yijun out of the stun, as if they were sure in their hearts that even if it was discovered, it would never hurt their conspiracy in the slightest......

The knock sounded outside the door again, and then Song Gao's calm voice came from outside: "Your Highness, the food has been prepared and placed in the main hall of the third courtyard......

"Got it." King Ying responded, looked at the two of them, slowly got up from the chair, and extended his hand to the door of the house and said: "If you don't dislike it, it's not too late to feed and then talk later......" Zhang Yijun and Li Shangyin also respectfully obeyed their orders, sang with their crossed hands, and followed King Ying to move to the third courtyard.

In the main hall, Song Gao seems to have ordered someone to set up the left, upper and right three dining tables, followed by a futon table, and the dining table is also full of food prepared in the back kitchen. After King Yingzheng sat on the top, Zhang Yijun and Li Shangyin sat on both sides, and Song Gao silently closed the front door.

Although the kitchen specially prepared two meat dishes for Zhang Yijun and Li Shangyin, it was probably because King Ying didn't like meat, and the rest of the dishes did not have meat, preserved meat, raw or fresh. Moreover, the delicate and small dishes made Li Shangyin eat really restrained, far from being comparable to Zhang Yijun's meat-eating and drinking at the orchid wine shop that day.

Interestingly, Li Shangyin noticed that King Ying did not mention the previous topic during the meal.

When the three of them ran out of food, when they were collecting cups and plates, the servants in the palace presented a set of three-color drinks, and King Ying raised his hand to signal Li Shangyin to pick it first.

In the tray in the hand of the servant in front of him, there are three honeysuckle pattern silver cups, each with black, green, and white slurry, which is very beautiful when matched together. Except for the white syrup that Li Shangyin knew was buttermilk, the other two didn't know why they were drinking. He was tempted to get the buttermilk he knew, but the buttermilk was placed in the middle, making him afraid to get his hands on it.

Li Shangyin really made a difficulty, but he couldn't shirk it, so he took the green slurry on the outermost side, and saw that Zhang Yijun took the black one, and King Ying took the last buttermilk, and the three of them drank the drink in the cup and sipped it separately.

The drink in Li Shangyin's hand seems to be made of crushed and ground Fusang leaves, and there is some subtle sweetness and sourness in the greenness, and there are some special aromas when smelled, which is indeed greasy.

King Ying put down his drink and asked, "What about now...... According to Yijun, how to do it? ”

Zhang Yijun replied with his hands crossed: "Since there is still some time now, we can collect evidence immediately." The top priority should be to clarify the purpose of the 'ghost soldiers' and ......" Zhang Yijun paused here for a moment, his eyes flickered, but he also continued: "And where does the culvert lead......"

Li Shangyin looked at Zhang Yijun's expression for a long time and did not say much.

"Since this is the case," King Ying nodded slightly, and put down the silver cup, "According to what the chaotic party does, in the future, you and Shang Yin will have to walk around Chang'an, for the convenience of acting, Xiao Wang Shou you Ying Wang You, what is it?" ”

Li Shangyin was shocked, the Tang Dynasty official system, the prince and the friend of the official to the five grades, although there is no excessive power, but it has reached the level of wearing a silver fish bag, with this to walk around the capital, there is no need to report the name, the small officials will be more or less convenient, this is also the only official position that can be decided by the vassal king who to grant, the king of Ying wants to tie Zhang Yi to the king of Ying, which can be described as exceptional. Li Shangyin, who needs to take a scientific examination to be an official, can't help but feel envious.

Zhang Yijun hurriedly got up and replied with his hands crossed: "Your Highness's good intentions, the ministers have all received them, but His Royal Highness is a minister, and his ancestors are trained, and I hope that the ministers will not be ......."

For this refusal, King Ying nodded quite understandingly, but Li Shangyin was surprised, the behavior of this rich son seems to be beyond his imagination forever, his words and deeds are always far from the noble children in Li Shangyin's heart, what is the reason why there are officials who do not do it?

King Ying said: "In the future, you don't need to call yourself a minister, just call yourself a name......

After Zhang Yijun thanked him, there were bursts of drums from Danfeng Gate, reminding the public that the curfew was coming.

"It's not early, I didn't return home last night, my father is worried, tonight Yijun may return to Guangde......" Zhang Yijun arched his hand, Li Shangyin heard that he hurriedly put down the unfinished slurry water, and also got up to salute.

King Ying sent the two of them out of the third courtyard, and after watching the two of them pass through the second gate far away, he turned around and walked slowly to the back garden.