What King Xiangting said had nothing to do with the Mid-Autumn Festival fire, so Empress Xuanren said: "What do you say have to do with the Mid-Autumn Festival fire?" Are you saying that the king of Beiling County is the real culprit of the fire? ”

King Xiangtingjun said: "Exactly! ”

Empress Xuanren exclaimed, "How come? ”

Xiangting County King said: "The King of Beiling County has done far more than that. Rong Chen slowly came to His Majesty and Niangniang. ”

"Hurry up and change the hot tea for the old county king." Yu Tuyu instructed Ling Ji.

King Xiangting bowed in his seat and said, "Your Majesty." As His Majesty said, although the princes of the clan opposed the policy of Emperor Longwu to cut the domain, because they were afraid of the prestige of Emperor Longwu and also took into account the supreme grace of Emperor Longwu to be crowned a prince, they only opposed the policy of cutting the domain, but they did not oppose Emperor Longwu himself, let alone poison Emperor Longwu. And it was the king of Beiling County who instigated all this change. He secretly contacted the kings of the clan, and through fanning the flames, coercion and temptation, etc., all the kings of the clan were hooked, and finally designed to poison Emperor Longwu. It's just that he didn't expect that although the matter was done, he didn't get the throne. So he began the next step of deployment. ”

King Xiangtingjun took a sip of tea, and then said, "His second step is to provoke civil strife. And at this time, if you want to provoke civil strife, the most convenient thing is to make a fuss about the collapse of the first emperor and the prince's success. So he sent a messenger, falsely claiming to be a secret envoy sent by Empress Xuanren, and sent a letter to Rongzhu, saying that Emperor Longwu was killed by His Majesty, and asked Rongzhu to raise troops. Fortunately, Rongzhu is heartfelt to His Majesty and has never been trapped. After that, the king of Beiling County still did not give up, and used the case of poisoning to try to win over the ministers and melt the casting, but he did not succeed. After the county of Canaan, the king of Beiling County continued to send lobbyists to Tairodo, hoping to provoke the relationship between Xiaojia and His Majesty, but Xiaojia's intention to support His Majesty was very resolute. The king of Beiling County saw that there was no hope, so he came up with a poisonous plan, and took advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival night to disguise it as a fire and burn it to death. The reason why he is like this is that he hopes to drive His Majesty to a dead end, and to force Niangniang and Xiaojia to a dead end, to provoke the conflict between His Majesty and Niangniang and Xiaojia, and then create royal contradictions and chaos, and he will profit from the chaos. ”

Empress Xuanren said: "How do you know that the Mid-Autumn Festival fire was caused by the king of Beiling County?" Did you find out beforehand? Then why not stop it. ”

"Mother, the minister is incompetent. Although the minister sent people to secretly monitor the king of Beiling County, he did not learn in advance that the king of Beiling County was plotting the Mid-Autumn Festival fire. It's just that after the incident, the people I sent followed the king of Beiling County and Mrs. Huarong for a tryst, and when the two had a tryst, the king of Beiling County explained to Mrs. Huarong in detail the causes and consequences of the Mid-Autumn Festival fire, and the king of Beiling County said to Mrs. Huarong: "With this fire, I am expected to ascend the throne." When the minister heard about this, he also inquired about other news, so he did not dare to delay for a moment, and urgently entered Beijing to Chen Zuo. ”

The king of Beiling County had a personal affair with Mrs. Huarong, and Empress Xuanren had already known about it, but Xiao Tuyou didn't know about it. Xiao Tuyu exclaimed: "What? Tuxiu and Mrs. Huarong's tryst? You mean they fornicate? When did this start? ”

The king of Xiangting County said: "The king of Beiling County has had an affair with the Empress of Da Gao Ruizong and the current Mrs. Huarong, which has been since the time of the previous dynasty. Your Majesty, the fornication between the king of Beiling County and Empress Ruizong and Mrs. Huarong is by no means a trivial matter, which involves many major events in the future. Because, in this, there is a shocking secret. ”

Empress Xuanren knew that the king of Xiangting wanted to talk about Zhou Duan's origin.

Xiao Tuyu said: "What shocking secret? ”

"Your Majesty, according to what the ministers have learned from their spies in the past few months, Zhou Duan is not the son of Da Gao Ruizong, but the illegitimate son of the king of Beiling County and the queen of Ruizong."

Tuyu exclaimed: "Ah! It's really bold to fix it. Damn it! ”

The king of Xiangting County said: "Your Majesty, the king of Beiling County and Ruizong Yihou had an adulterous child, which is indeed a great rebellion. But compared with what the king of Beiling County did later, this is only a small thing. ”

"Huh?! What else? Tuyu asked.

"Your Majesty, after the king of Beiling County and Ruizong Yi Hou gave birth to Zhou Duan, Yi Hou liked the king of Beiling County even more, so the relationship with Ruizong was even more discordant, and Ruizong was also quite cold to Zhou Duan, although he only had a son of Zhou Duan, but he was not established as the prince for a long time, and at the same time he recruited favorite concubines and hoped to increase his heirs. The king of Beiling County was worried that his affair with Empress Yi would be discovered, and he was even more worried that his biological son Zhou Duan would not be able to succeed to the throne, so he conspired with Empress Yi to poison Ruizong, and then successfully pushed Zhou Duan to succeed to the throne. This is the real reason for Ruizong's untimely death. ”

Empress Xuanren had long known about Zhou Duan's life experience, but it was the first time she had heard of the poisoning of Da Gao Ruizong by the king of Beiling County and Empress Yi.

He was even more surprised.

King Xiangting went on to say: "The ambition of King Beiling is by no means limited to Zhou Duan's succession. He and Empress Yi calculated to gradually replace Zhou Duan and proclaim himself emperor. In the first step, because Zhou Duan was young and could not manage the government, Empress Yi took the name of Zhou Duan and named the king of Beiling County as the regent, above the kings and below the emperor, acting for the emperor; In the second step, the king of Beiling County gradually gathered his authority and established his status; In the third step, Zhou Duanchan was located in the king of Beiling County, and recognized the king of Beiling County as his father, changed his surname to Xiao, and was named the prince; In the fourth step, a hundred years after the king of Beiling County, Zhou Duan succeeded to the throne again in the name of the descendants of the Xiao family. In this way, it not only takes into account the love between father and son, but also takes into account the inheritance of the throne between father and son. ”

Tuyu squinted his eyes and said, "Good strategy, good means." The king of Beiling County is really not an ordinary product, no wonder the first emperor has always been wary of him. ”

King Xiangtingjun said: "Your Majesty Shengming." The calculation of the king of Beiling County was originally foolproof. He has the support of Empress Yi and Zhou Duan inside, and the support of the two surrounding counties of Beiling County and Ganzi County, as long as it is gradually implemented, the throne will soon be his. ”

Xiao Tuyou interjected: "I guess that the first emperor and I are also chess pieces in the hands of the king of Beiling County, right?" ”

King Xiangtingjun said: "Your Majesty Shengming." The king of Beiling County once said in person that at the beginning, the reason why Emperor Longwu and His Majesty were able to rise to prominence in Weiwei, especially in the last two years of Ruizong, the authority of Emperor Longwu and His Majesty in the holy capital increased day by day, in addition to Emperor Longwu and His Majesty's heroic Tianzhong, there was also a big reason, that is, the King of Beiling County secretly deliberately pushed it. The plan of the king of Beiling County is that he and Empress Yi will launch the most critical coup d'état in the court, and the holy capital will be fully guarded by Emperor Longwu and His Majesty, who were then Wei Weiqing and Wei Weicheng, and the north and south of the holy capital will be guarded by the two major counties of Beiling County and Ganzi County, and west of the holy capital is the Xiangting County State that is married to the Xiao family, so as to ensure all the safety. After the deed was completed, the Beiling County was divided into two and given to the Emperor Longwu who was Wei Weiqing at the time and His Majesty who was Wei Weicheng at the time, in exchange for support. ”

"What a calculation, Tuxiu. The Emperor and I were toyed with by him, and we were at a loss to know about it. "Tuyu was really surprised by the strategy of the king of Beiling County.

The king of Xiangting County said: "The king of Beiling County is indeed scheming. It's just that the king of Beiling County never expected that things would change unexpectedly. Before the calculation of him and Empress Yi began to be implemented, Emperor Longwu decisively complied with the will of heaven, preemptively ascended the throne as emperor, and founded a new dynasty - Dazhao. Moreover, what I didn't expect was that Emperor Longwu and His Majesty Yingming would stabilize the court situation in just a few years and create a prosperous generation. A big game of chess by the king of Beiling County, as soon as it was fully arranged, was picked by others. Of course, his dream of being an emperor was shattered. It is precisely because of this that the king of Beiling County hated and poisoned Emperor Longwu and His Majesty. ”

Xiao Tuyu snorted very contemptuously.

The king of Xiangting County said: "Originally, the king of Beiling County had no chance. Unexpectedly, Emperor Longwu ascended the throne, and began to comprehensively reduce the feudal domain and implement the county guard system, which made the prince of the clan of the Xiao clan very dissatisfied, which gave the king of Beiling an excellent opportunity. As a result, there was a series of events after the king of Beiling County contacted the prince of the clan to poison Emperor Longwu and after that. Therefore, in the final analysis, these things all started from the fornication between the king of Beiling County and Ruizong Yihou. ”

Xiao Tuyu snorted again, and then said: "This is all caused by the ambition of the king of Beiling County. When the first emperor was there, he repeatedly told me about Tuxiu's despicable hypocrisy and inflated ambition. In my opinion, his fornication with Ruizong Yihou is probably not out of the true love of men and women, but out of the need for conspiracy. Tuxiu, Tuxiu, I really didn't expect it. I really underestimate you. ”

The hall was quiet for a while, and then said, "In this way, the first emperor founded Dazhao to replace Dagao, and it really conformed to the mandate of heaven." ”

"Your Majesty, the king of Beiling County worked hard, and finally contacted the royal clan, from opposing the cutting of the feudal domain to opposing the Emperor Longwu, the king of Beiling County originally thought that this time it would be foolproof and able to take the throne into his arms, but he did not expect that all the royal clans were against his succession, but instead recommended His Majesty to succeed to the throne. The king of Beiling County was disappointed again, but he still did not give up. In the past few months, the ministers have sporadically inquired about the news that the king of Beiling County is now secretly contacting the kings of various clans and counties, wanting to overthrow His Majesty. The reason is that His Majesty's new policy wants to deprive the prince of the county from the privilege. As far as the minister knows, there are quite a few clan county kings who are ready to move, but the implementation of the new policy of county kings and county guards is very smooth, and all county kings are restrained by county guards, so they don't dare to act rashly. Moreover, the New Deal was quite effective, and the people were very supportive, and there was no sufficient reason for them to raise troops. This is also the root cause of the Mid-Autumn Festival arson of the king of Beiling County. He wanted to take advantage of this fire to turn His Majesty's 'rule' into chaos in the world, so as to strengthen the determination of the kings of all clans. ”

Tu Yu said: "Do all the clan and county kings support Tu Xiu?!" ”