Xiao Shaozong, the prince of Huainan, walked to the center of the hall and bowed down to the emperor. Flat! ”

Xiao Shaozong still bowed respectfully, and after getting up, he saw the ministers looking at each other, but Xiao Shaozong looked calm.

The ministers thought that although Xiao Shaozong was a member of the royal family, but now he was still guilty, the king of Huainan rebelled, although the little emperor did not severely punish Xiao Shaozong, but as the eldest son of the king of Huainan, Xiao Shaozong naturally could not get rid of the identity of the son of the guilty minister, in fact, there were many people in the court who used to be the king of Huainan, among which Dou Kui, the head of the household book.

After the King of Huainan committed suicide, Sima Lan wanted to take the change of the imperial tomb as an opportunity to kill all the henchmen of the King of Huainan, but the little emperor obviously did not want to see that kind of situation, if the strength of the opposition to the Sima clan in the court was eradicated, the Sima clan would be dominant, and there would be no more power to check and balance, so it was to immediately appoint Qi Ning as the secretary of the criminal department, and the purpose was naturally to keep the officials who had followed the king of Huainan as much as possible.

Dou Kui and the others naturally saw the emperor's intentions, and immediately defected to the Jinyi Qi family.

Qi Ning may not want to form a gang with this group, but it is in the interests of the emperor and even the Jinyi Qi family to keep the forces that are enemies of the Sima clan, and Qi Ning will naturally not refuse.

Today, seeing the prince of Huainan suddenly coming to the court, Dou Kui and the others were naturally surprised.

Dou Kui was once a capable general under the King of Huainan, and he went in and out of the Huainan Palace, so he naturally often saw Xiao Shaozong, and his son Dou Lianzhong also had a good personal relationship with Xiao Shaozong.

The Huainan palace was raided, but the palace itself was still left for Xiao Shaozong to live in, but the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty knew that Xiao Shaozong was actually under house arrest in the palace, after all, Xiao Shaozong was terminally ill and his life did not last long, and the palace was waiting for the cage where he was imprisoned.

"Shizi, there is an excerpt here, but you sent someone to present it?" The eunuch glanced at a eunuch on the side, and the eunuch immediately held a fold, walked quickly to Xiao Shaozong, and handed the fold to Xiao Shaozong, Xiao Shaozong took the fold, opened it and glanced at it a few times, and said: "It is the criminal minister who presented it to the emperor!" ”

The ministers were even more surprised, secretly thinking that Xiao Shaozong was under house arrest in the palace, how could he give the emperor a discount? In his excerpt, he doesn't know what it is?

The emperor coughed before he said, "You said that there is something to present.... Give it to me, and in front of the Manchu Dynasty..... In the face of the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military affairs, I have summoned you into the temple today, what do you have to present? His voice was slightly hoarse, and the ministers thought to themselves, it seems that the emperor is indeed in good health.

It's just that the ministers are more puzzled that Xiao Shaozong has something to present to the emperor, and he has to do it in front of the Manchu civil and military.

Xiao Shaozong took out an fold from his arms, and everyone was even more surprised when they saw that there was red paint on the corner of the fold.

dotted with red paint, that is a secret in a secret, since it is a secret to fold, but I don't know why Xiao Shaozong took it out in front of the Manchu Dynasty?

But I saw Xiao Shaozong handing the secret fold to the eunuch standing aside, and the eunuch carefully held the secret fold and sent it to the Jinluan Palace, but Xiao Shaozong had already said: "Qi Shengshang, this is a secret order, and it was also handed over to his father in person before the death of the first emperor, and he also asked the saint to learn clearly!" ”

As soon as these words came out, they immediately caused a commotion.

No one thought that before the first emperor died, he would hand over a secret decree to the king of Huainan, but no one knew about this matter before the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty.

Some people were even more strange, secretly thinking that before the death of the first emperor, he ordered Sima Lan to replace the city defense and transfer the black knife battalion into the city.

The first emperor was in a critical situation at that time, and Jinshang, who was only the crown prince at that time, sent an envoy to Eastern Qi, once the first emperor died suddenly, and the new emperor could not ascend the throne immediately, there would naturally be serious problems.

The country cannot be without a king for a day, and the ministers in the court all know that the king of Huainan has always been obsessed with the throne, and no one dares to guarantee that the king of Huainan will not take advantage of the situation, as the eldest son of Emperor Taizu, the king of Huainan is also regarded as a root and a young man, and he is qualified to inherit the throne.

Since the first emperor made arrangements before his death to prevent the king of Huainan from usurping the throne, how could he leave a secret order for the king of Huainan?

What is the purpose of this secret decree?

The ministers were suspicious in their hearts, the eunuch had already received the secret order and presented it to the little emperor, the little emperor opened the fold, took a closer look, the Fengtian Hall was silent at this time, and after a while, the little emperor handed the fold to the eunuch: "Read it!" ”

The eunuch took the secret order, opened it, and said loudly: "My secret order: The king of Huainan and I are of the same blood line, loyal to the monarch to serve the country, he is the Sima clan but has the heart of rebellion, and the king of Huainan protects the country and protects the king, and kills the Sima clan, Qin this!" ”

The ministers of Fengtian Hall were all dumbfounded, and many even thought that there was something wrong with their ears.

When the king of Huainan sacrificed to the imperial tomb, he arranged in advance to arrange assassins in the imperial tomb to disguise themselves as Taoist priests of Longhu Mountain, intending to assassinate Sima Lan to seize power.

The king of Huainan was defeated and committed suicide, and afterwards the emperor directly designated the king of Huainan as an anti-minister, and the rebellion of the imperial tomb can be said to have been concluded.

But at this time, the eunuch read out the secret edict in the court, which is equivalent to saying that the real instigator behind the change in the imperial tomb is the first emperor, if this is indeed the case, then the king of Huainan is not only not a rebel minister, but a loyal minister who stood up to protect the imperial power of Great Chu.

No one thought that Xiao Shaozong would come up with such a secret order today.

After a period of silence, he suddenly saw Dou Kui, the head of the household, coming out of the column and kneeling: "Qi Shengshang, the Huainan Emperor's Mausoleum rebelled, although it has been decided, but ...... If this secret edict was really left by the first emperor, then what the king of Huainan did was ordered by the first emperor, not only was it not a rebellion, but a traitor for the country! ”

"On the day of the change in the imperial tomb, the subordinates were also at the scene." Another official came out of the ranks of ministers and knelt on the ground: "The minister remembers very clearly, the goal of the king of Huainan that day was indeed to eradicate Sima Lan, which coincided with this secret order. ”

When the ministers saw the two people who came out of the ranks, they knew that these two people were originally the henchmen of the king of Huainan.

These two people obviously saw that there was an opportunity to clear the sin of rebellion against King Huainan, and immediately stood up, saying that they were bent on defending King Huainan's rebellion, but that was not necessarily the case.

The whole court and the central government all knew that Dou Kui's group was very close to the King of Huainan at the beginning, and they did not fall off the horse, it was nothing more than the emperor and Qi Ning's efforts to protect it, but no one dared to guarantee that no one would implicate this group of people again in the case of King Huainan's rebellion in the future.

Dou Kui and other Huainan kings' old party know very well in their hearts that as long as the charge of Huainan Wang's rebellion cannot be cleared, then there will always be a sharp sword hanging over his head, and no one knows when the sword will fall.

If you can rely on this secret order to clear the charge of King Huainan today, from now on, Dou Kui and the others will not only not have to worry about being held accountable, but will become great loyal ministers because of cooperating with King Huainan to commit adultery.

As an official in the court, it is easy to figure out the subtleties of this, and for a while, four or five officials stood up to cry out for the king of Huainan.

"Before the change of the imperial tomb, the Sima clan did evil in the government and the opposition, and Sima Lan was even more powerful and excluded dissidents in the court." An official of the old party of the king of Huainan said loudly: "The prince was worried day and night at that time, he was worried that the Sima clan's power would be big, and one day he would threaten the emperor, and even seek to usurp the throne, so the prince has been trying to find a way to eradicate the traitors." Although the ministers did not know that the first emperor had left a secret order for the prince, they also knew that Sima Lan was arrogant and domineering, and he must not let this traitor act recklessly in the court. The prince must have seen that the Sima clan was becoming more and more domineering, so when he was sacrificing the imperial tomb, he arranged a plan to eradicate the traitors, but it was a pity that it was ......! ”

The ministers of the palace all looked at several officials to avenge the grievances of the king of Huainan, and secretly thought that Dou Kui and these people seemed to really want to completely turn over the case of the imperial mausoleum's rebellion at the court meeting.

Suddenly, I saw Lu Xiao, the secretary of the military department, kneeling down and said: "Qi Song Shengshang, I have never heard that the first emperor left a secret order for the king of Huainan before, and today the prince suddenly took out the secret order, and the minister was really surprised." The case of King Huainan has been concluded, if this secret order is true, it is natural to re-investigate, otherwise it will ......! He glanced at Xiao Shaozong, who had not spoken, before continuing: "The minister thinks that it is necessary to determine the authenticity of this secret order first. ”

Dou Kui turned his head to look at Lu Xiao and frowned, "Lord Lu, do you mean to say that the secret order taken out by the prince is fake?" ”

"I didn't say that, but the stakes are high, so naturally we have to confirm it again and again." Lu Xiao said in a deep voice: "Shizi, I have something I want to ask, I don't know if Shizi is willing to answer?" ”

Xiao Shaozong nodded slightly and said, "Lord Lu just ask." ”

"The prince said that this secret decree was handed over to the king of Huainan by the first emperor himself." Lu Xiao stared at Xiao Shaozong and said, "Then why is this secret order in the hands of the prince now?" The secret order of the first emperor is naturally to be kept strictly secret, the fewer people who know, the better, when did the king of Huainan hand over this secret order to you? ”

Xiao Shaozong's voice was very peaceful, and the clouds were light and light: "Before the first emperor died, he summoned his father, and Lord Lu could investigate whether his father had entered the palace at that time. I didn't know about the existence of this secret order until the night before my father left for the imperial tomb, and he handed it to me, and told me that as long as Sima was in the day, I could not open the secret order for a day, unless Sima was destroyed one day, I could not open the secret order! ”