Chang'an, the land of Guanzhong in early autumn is still a little stuffy, the heat has not completely subsided, but the streets and alleys of Chang'an are a slaughter, a few days ago is still rejoicing for the victory of Anxi The people of Chang'an are also silent at this time, but this silence is difficult to hide the undercurrent of calm and turbulence, a feeling of grief and uneasiness spreads in Chang'an, the Tang Emperor Li Miao is seriously ill, and there is no cure.

In the dormitory of the emperor of Daming Palace, the thin young emperor is lying quietly on the dragon couch, as if he is asleep, he has been unconscious for three days, no one can find out what disease he is suffering from, and no one can wake him up, water and rice can not be fed, Li Miao is like a flower that has left the soil, gradually withering and withering, beside him, several imperial doctors are tired and busy, acupuncture and massage for him again and again, only hoping that he can swallow liquid, so that at least his life can be saved, but, Everything was in vain, his throat was like a stone, any water and medicine would flow from the corners of his mouth, although everyone knew what the emperor's result would be, but no one dared to say it, as early as the day when Li Miao suddenly fainted, an unlucky imperial doctor just proposed to prepare for the emperor's funeral, and was killed by the angry queen mother, Cui Xiaofu seemed to be crazy, she vigorously pursued the cause of the emperor, only Li Miao's side was executed for dereliction of duty There were more than 20 eunuchs and palace maids, but in this way, The truth is also getting farther and farther away, and the most authoritative version is that the emperor fell while standing on the shelf looking at the map of Anxi, seriously injuring his head. But now it doesn't matter for any reason, what matters is who will inherit the emperor's unification? This is the topic that the people of Chang'an are most concerned about, and the struggle began as early as the day Li Miao fell.

The night is falling. A carriage came from a distance under the arch guard of more than 100 guards, stopped in front of the mansion of Pei Jun, the right minister, one of the nine ministers of the cabinet, Lu Qi, the head of the household department, walked out of the carriage, with the improvement of finances in the past few months, Lu Qi's complexion has also improved a lot, Jianghuai's money and grain have been completely smoothly transferred from Xiangyang, which has greatly alleviated the financial crisis of the imperial court and the high price of rice in Chang'an, especially this year's large-scale rice harvest in the south has become a foregone conclusion, and the rice price in Chang'an has fallen again and again. At present, it has dropped from 500 Wen to 80 Wen in June, but the price of salt has risen to 200 Wen per bucket, and the rise in salt price also means a large increase in salt tax. ｅｔ||even surpassed Li Mian, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, in terms of real power.

Like other ministers, Lu Qidi's mood is also quite heavy these days, the emperor had an accident, although this matter itself does not affect the operation of the imperial court, but then the competition for the throne will become the focus of this year's power struggle, the current situation is still unclear, both the queen mother and Pei Xiangguo have remained silent, at this time Lu Qi has been sensitively aware that today Xiangguo called himself, I am afraid it is related to this matter.

He straightened his clothes and walked briskly up the steps. Pei Jun's eldest son Pei Mingkai was already waiting in the gatehouse, and when he saw Lu Qi coming up, he hurriedly walked out and gave a long salute, "Father ordered me to wait here, Uncle Lu, please come with me." ”

In Pei Jun's study, the first minister of the Tang Dynasty was reading the folds attentively. These days. His mansion is very calm, as usual, it seems that he has not received the impact of the Tang Emperor's accident, and Pei Jun is not as anxious as people say, on the contrary, he still works for large and small state affairs every day as usual.

But this is not to say that he doesn't care about Li Miaodi's affairs, after all, the king of a country is about to die. As a courtier. And he is the first minister, and it is impossible for him not to feel sorry for it.

can only say that Li Miao's accident. Pei Jun was not surprised, or it was in his expectation, since he made a splash at the beginning of the year, Pei Jun felt a little uneasy, the reason why Cui Xiaofu persuaded Li to appoint his crown prince was because of his inconvenience, but now he showed precocious wisdom prematurely.

If it was just early wisdom, Cui Xiaofu might still be able to tolerate him, but his biological father Li Li's ambition was inflated and taught him too much rebellion and power desire, which directly threatened Cui Xiaofu's power, Mo said that he was Cui Xiaofu's fake son, even if it was his own son, she would not tolerate it.

In the final analysis, it was caused by the short-sightedness and stupidity of Li Li, the king of Luo.

Li Miao will go, Pei Jun can't not consider the issue of the successor, but the succession to the throne is not up to him Pei Jun alone, it is necessary to consider the ideas of the queen mother, the internal disputes of the Li royal family, and the opinions of hundreds of officials and veterans, but more importantly, Zhang Huan's attitude, the cabinet structure is a three-power system, which determines that the heir of the Tang Emperor will reach a compromise with these three factions.

"Father, Lu Shilang is here." The humble voice of the eldest son Pei Mingkai came from outside the door.

Family affairs also made Pei Jun quite annoyed, and after a long time, he set up his second son Pei Mingyao as the heir to the head of the family too early, and it turned out that his decision was a bit hasty, Pei Mingyao has more ability, but lack of virtue, and although Pei Mingkai is kind, he lacks a skill and vision to do big things, and because he has a disability, it is doomed that he cannot become his heir.

Pei Jun sighed, every family has a scripture that is difficult to read, and it is really like this!

He put his thoughts back, put down his pen and said, "Please come in!" ”

Soon, Lu Qi walked into the study under the guidance of Pei Mingkai, and he stepped forward to give Pei Jun a deep salute, "See Xiangguo!" ”

"The squire is too polite." Pei Jun smiled and waved his hand, "Please take a seat!" ”

Immediately two maids came in and served fragrant tea to the two, Pei Jun saw that Pei Mingkai was still standing aside uninterestingly, his face sank, and he said unhappily: "You can go too!" By the way, bring the door shut. ”

Pei Mingkai was shocked, he hurriedly gave a salute, walked out quickly, and closed the door. Listening to his footsteps all the time, Pei Juncai sighed slightly and said, "None of my sons are successful, and none of them satisfy me." ”

Lu Qi shook his head and smiled: "That's Pei Xiang's requirements are too high, I think they are all the pillars of my Tang Dynasty, Ming Kai is kind and generous, Ming Yao is shrewd and capable, Ming Qian is conscientious, and Ming Cheng benefits the people, as for Mingyuan, he is now Sima of Longyou Jiedu Mansion, Zhang Huan's right-hand man, and he is even more remarkable." If they can't be called a vessel, then won't my two sons become pigs and sheep? ”

Pei Jun smiled bitterly, "Don't comfort me, I know it very well in my heart." ”

As soon as he changed the topic, he took a book from the table and handed it to Lu Qi and said: "This is the compensation plan of the Ministry of War for the fallen soldiers in the battle to recover Anxi, you can take a look first!" ”

Lu Qi took the fold and opened it, he glanced at the last pension first, and couldn't help but be stunned, it was actually 1.1 million, Pei Jun saw his expression in his eyes. He explained to him: "This is calculated according to the standard of 20,000 people, and the imperial court's custom is 50 guan per person, plus the officer is slightly higher, so the budget is 1.1 million guan, but it may not be so much, my latest intelligence is 13,000 people, and it will be added a little later, and it is estimated that it will be about 15,000 people in the end." ”

Lu Qi looked at it hastily, and he frowned slightly and said: "We can still get millions of yuan, but I heard that Longyou's standard is two hundred yuan per person." And the imperial court only gives fifty runs, but the big head is borne by the locality, I am afraid that it will be spread out and the world will laugh at it, I mean that the court will either give a hundred runs, or simply ignore it, and let Longyou solve it himself. ”

"No way!" Pei Jundang even denied Lu Qi's opinion. He said solemnly: "The Longyou Army is fighting to recover my Tang Anxi. If the imperial court doesn't care about the bereavement of the fallen soldiers, this will be laughed at by the world, and fifty guan is the custom of the imperial court, not because they are Zhang Huan's army, as for Longyou to pay another one hundred and fifty guan, then it is not my problem. ”

He sneered slightly, and said, "Besides, as far as I know, Longyou didn't take out two hundred pieces at once. Instead, it provides money and rice to his family for a long time. But we took it all out at once, and there is no room for comparison between the two. ”

Speaking of which. Pei Jun stood up, his mood was very uneasy, this time in the battle of Anxi, Zhang Huan became the biggest winner, not only his reputation inside and outside the court was unprecedentedly high, but also won Anxi and Beiting, he actually controlled half of the Tang Dynasty, from the balance of strength, Zhang Huan's total strength reached 450,000, and there are a large number of reserve militias that can be converted into regular troops at any time, and they have surpassed him Pei Jun in strength.

He looked at the sudden candle flame and pondered for a while before he said, "I called you tonight to ask you to do something. ”

Lu Qi hurriedly stood up and bowed down and said, "Don't dare to be humble, please ask Pei Xiang to give orders." ”

Pei Jun nodded, he pointed to the fold on the table and said to Lu Qi: "You go to Longyou and talk to them about the pension." ”

Lu Qi was stunned, not to mention whether it was necessary to go to Longyou to talk about this matter, even if he wanted to talk, it should be the military department, how could Pei Jun tell himself to go? But he was stunned for only a moment, and Lu Qi understood Pei Jun's true intentions as soon as he thought about it, and he immediately bowed down and said, "Please rest assured, Xiangguo, my subordinates will leave early tomorrow morning." ”

After Lu Qi left, Pei Jun stared at the night sky with his hands behind his back, the country cannot be without a king for a day, Zhang Huan is now far away in Anxi, even if he comes back, it will be more than 20 days later, it is impossible to wait for him to come back and then discuss the establishment of a new monarch, sending someone to Longyou can be regarded as giving him an explanation, and Cui Xiaofu made a move at this time, I am afraid that he is afraid that he will have a bad plan after he returns.

Cui Xiaofu's thoughts, Pei Jun knew it completely, but he didn't want to suppress her too much, he also needed this woman to contain Zhang Huan for him, thinking of this, Pei Jun's eyes slowly looked in the direction of Daming Palace, I don't know if this woman has decided on the next monarch now?

The night is already very deep, a crescent moon hangs in the sky, the autumn wind carries a hint of chill, blows through the treetops, and makes a whimpering desolate sound, the Lin De Hall of Daming Palace is still *** bright, Cui Xiaofu is looking at something, she is also very concentrated, so that the eunuch Lu Taiyi entered the room, she did not notice.

In the past two days, Cui Xiaofu's mind is no longer on the child emperor who is about to die, although Li Miao is her son in name, although she has raised him for seven years, it cannot be said that there is no emotion, but in the face of the power struggle, her heart is harder than iron and cold, at this moment her mind is to choose another young emperor in the imperial family, as Pei Jun guessed, she just wants to rush before the end of the Anxi Campaign, and make this matter ironclad, not to give Zhang Huan a chance.

In the afternoon, Wei Ge specially came to meet her, and recommended Li Miandi's grandson Li Yan to succeed to the throne, Li Yan is only two years old this year, smart and lively, but Cui Xiaofu can't make up his mind for a while, although Li Mian is his confidant, and his connections in the clan are no less than Li Li, it can completely calm Li Li's revenge because of the death of his son, which is a positive side, but Li Mian himself is too strong, once his son succeeds to the throne, will he have the same dissent as Li Li, so as to empty himself? This is a problem that Cui Xiaofu has to consider.

Cui Xiaofu had already looked at the Li clan genealogy three times, but she still hadn't found a suitable candidate, and she put down the genealogy with some frustration.

At this time, she suddenly saw Lu Taiyi standing at the door, so she closed the family tree and said angrily: "You are not watching from his side, what are you doing here?" ”

"Back to the Queen Mother, the imperial doctor has found a way to let him drink medicine."

"What?" Cui Xiaofu stood up suddenly, shocked and angry: "Didn't you say that there is nothing to be done?" Who came up with the solution? ”

"It was done by the Qin Imperial Doctor on duty tonight, he is trying now, the old slave saw that the situation was not good, and he came to report to the Queen Mother." The mourning family wants to see how he has such great ability. Cui Xiaofu snorted coldly, and walked quickly towards the door, at this time, Lu Taiyi had already felt the irrepressible killing intent on Cui Xiaofu's body, he didn't dare to say another word, and followed her tremblingly.